Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) director Comm Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff said Thai authorities have informed the department of Mr T’s arrest, which took place at the Haadyai airport at about 3.30pm on Wednesday.

“We will be sending a team to Thailand to work together with them (Thai authorities). “Our priority is to obtain intelligence on the suspect’s operations in both countries as well as his network,” he told The Star.

Thai police on Wednesday scored a major success in their battle against an international drug syndicate with the arrest of “Mr T”, who they believed played a key role in smuggling hundreds of kilogrammes of “ice”, also known as methamphetamine, and syabu into Malaysia.

The suspect had gone to Chiang Rai to place an order for a consignment of drugs, and was also responsible for a failed attempt by two accomplices to smuggle 282 kilograms of “ice” worth millions of ringgit into Malaysia via the Sadao border in March last year, Thai police said.

The two henchmen also told authorities that the suspect, who is from Johor, had facilitated four to five successful drug smuggling attempts into Malaysia, each time carrying about 100kg of “ice” to undisclosed locations in the country.

Thai police also nabbed a Thai woman and a Taiwanese man in Chiang Rai as well as a Thai woman in Chiang Mai. They are believed to be members of the international syndicate and were arrested in follow-up operations on Wednesday. Comm Mohd Mokhtar commended the Thai police on the successful arrest

“It is proven again that international cooperation and sharing of intelligence is the key to win the war on drugs. “The suspect’s arrest may be just the beginning. We will work closely with our Thai counterparts to take down this syndicate,” he said, adding that the drug menace was borderless.

Police also recorded a recent success after busting a syndicate in Malaysia that imported designer drugs from Taiwan, including Ecstasy and Erimin 5. Collaborating with Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, the NCID and Special Tactical Intelligence Narcotics Group (Sting) uncovered the drug-trafficking ring and raided four of their strongholds here, resulting in RM2.5mil ($568,052) worth of drugs seized and nine men detained.

Between January and April 17, the NCID and Sting have seized drugs worth RM81.9mil (US$18,609,410) and assets of RM49.16mil ($11,170,190) belonging to syndicates, while 57,872 people were arrested for drug-related offences.