Nigerian falls to his death in drug bust

KUALA LUMPUR: A 34-year-old Nigerian man who fell to his death from the balcony of his rented apartment unit in Seri Kembangan during a police raid on Tuesday was a henchman of a drug kingpin high on the police wanted list.
Federal police Narcotics Crime Investigations Department (NCIS) deputy director Datuk Haris Wong Abdullah said today that the raiding party nabbed the drug kingpin who is also a Nigerian in the 12.45pm bust before seizing 3.9kg of syabu at his apartment at Taman Bukit Serdang.
He said the dead foreigner had tried to escape from police by jumping from the balcony of his unit on the seventh floor to an adjacent unit. However, the man lost his grip and plunged to the ground.
Haris said the detained suspect had been active in drug dealing for over two years. He said in a follow-up operation four hours later, police detained two other Nigerian men who were part of the syndicate.
He said in separate operations on Monday and Tuesday involving other syndicates, police seized about 2.5kg of syabu that came hidden in two dozen pairs of shoes and electric air pumps in shipments from China.
Haris said police were alerted of the suspicious contents by staff of a courier company in Shah Alam that received the items for a client.
He said six Nigerians were detained in Seri Kembangan, Cyberjaya and Bandar Seri Damansara following the recovery of the drugs.
Haris said the latest tactic by the syndicate of smuggling in syabu was to have it shipped from Nigeria to China then to Dubai before it is sent to Malaysia.
"Three of the nine suspects including the foreigner who was killed are kingpins. We seized a total of 6.4kg of high grade syabu worth RM2.5 million. These syndicates keep changing their tactics in smuggling drugs into Malaysia to distract the authorities.
"They also recruit both Malaysian and foreign drug mules to deliver the narcotics to countries such as Australia and Israel. We managed to contain Iranian syndicates bringing in drugs in the past and it is a matter of time (before) we nail the Nigerian kingpins here.," he said in a press conference in Bukit Aman today.
He said the suspects, who are aged between 24 and 36, entered Malaysia as private college students and will be remanded for investigations.
Haris said intelligence sharing with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Australian federal police led to the latest busts.