SERDANG: The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (JKDM) for the first time today, used the incinerator system to destroy various types of drugs weighing a total of 262.45 kilogrammes (kg) worth RM35.6 million seized since 2013.
Its director-general Datuk Khazali Ahmad said the drugs were seized by the KL International Airport (KLIA) Enforcement Unit, Narcotics Branch JKDM headquarters and the Enforcement Unit of JKDM Kuala Lumpur following the arrests and seizures from 155 cases from 2013 until last month.
He said the drugs comprised 148.03kg of methamphetamine, cathinone (103.61kg), ketamine (7.828kg) and pseudoephedrine (2.982kg).
“Cathinone and pseudoephedrine are commonly used to produce medicines but the seized drugs were believed to be modified drugs,” he told reporters before the drugs were disposed of at the Department of Agriculture’s incineration disposal site, here.
Khazali said incineration was used to dispose the drugs as the method was more environmentally friendly.
“Besides, the amount we have this time was quite, so we approached the Department of Agriculture to use the incinerator,” he said.
He said in the process, the drugs would be burned in batches of 60 kgs for about an hour, per batch.
The incinerator was normally used to destroy prohibited or diseased agricultural products brought into the country.
Khazali said overall, the Customs Narcotics Branch, KLIA Customs and Kuala Lumpur Customs have seized 1,548.168kg of drugs worth RM174.525 million since 2013 up to last month.
He said 1,005.178kg worth RM81.811 million was from drug seizures in 2013; 434.654kg (RM72.663 million) in 2014; and 108.337kg (RM20.051 million) from January to September this year.
