Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian police busted a heroin laboratory and seized drugs estimated to be worth 6.4 million ringgit (1.95 million dollars), arresting one suspect, news reports said Wednesday. During a night-time raid at a house in the northern Penang state, police detained one woman aged in her 40s along with an assortment of drugs and firearms.
Police seized four pistols, 64 rounds of ammunition, 9.1 kilogrammes of heroin base, 6.4 kilogrammes of heroin as well as cannabis, ketamine and caffeine, said state police chief Wira Ayub Yaakob.
He said the home was believed to have been used as a laboratory to process the heroin.
"Our investigations show that the drug syndicate had been in operation for some time.
"The laboratory is never in one place for long as it would be moved every few weeks to avoid being detected by us," Wira Ayub was quoted as saying by the Star daily.
He said police also seized more than 200,000 ringgit (60,600 dollars) from the suspect's bank accounts, a car and some jewelry believed to have been purchased using the proceeds from the sale of the drugs.
"The woman had since been remanded pending investigations," he said.
She could be charged under the dangerous drugs' statute for trafficking, which carries a mandatory death sentence.
