A Zambian man was arrested in Malaysia for allegedly smuggling heroin stuffed in 37 small tubes, which he swallowed before arriving in the country, a news report said on Tuesday.
The suspect was detained on Friday at the airport in the tourist resort of Penang, where he arrived from Yangon, Burma via Kuala Lumpur, the New Straits Times said.
He was arrested on a tip off, and police kept him in custody while waiting for him to pass out the thumb-sized capsules containing 210 grams of heroin, the paper said.
”We waited 24 hours before the suspect passed the 37 tubes which were filled with pure heroin,” Penang state police chief Christopher Wan Soo Kee was quoted as saying. The drugs have a street value of around 530 000 ringgit $143 520., Wan said, according to the paper.
It said the police believe the man — suspected to be a member of an international drug syndicate — was trying to smuggle the heroin to a processing plant in Penang.
The paper did not identify the Zambian man and Wan did not immediately respond to messages left by the Associated Press.
The suspected courier faces the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking. Police are looking for the Malaysian chief of the syndicate the Zambian allegedly worked for.
It said that while the Zambian was in custody he was fed bananas and a local delicacy, ”Roti canai,” a lightly fried, unleavened bread served with spicy curry. – Sapa-AP