VISITORS THAT MALAYSIA CAN DO WITHOUT

KUALA LUMPUR: Visit Ma-laysia Year 2007 is attracting "unwanted"
visitors. International drug syndicates are scrambling to get into
the country to make profits off foreign tourists.

The drugs of choice are high-grade heroin and cocaine, which are
popular in Europe and the United States.

Malaysian addicts prefer low-grade heroin while cocaine is difficult
to obtain here as it has to be imported from South America.

In the past fortnight, police have seized substantial amounts of such
drugs. Federal Narcotics director Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai
said the syndicates were trying to cash in on foreign tourists under
the Visit Malaysia Year campaign.

"Initial investigations have revealed that the drugs were brought
into the country as the syndicates knew the kind of drugs that
foreign tourists may want," he told the New Straits Times.

"Cocaine and high-grade heroin are popular in the West and with the
influx of foreigners into Malaysia, the country has become an
attractive market for drug syndicates."

For the local market, heroin and morphine are the most popular drugs
of choice as they are easily available via the Golden Triangle,
although amphetamines-type substan-ces (ATS) are a close third.

ATS includes pills such as Ecstasy, Eramin 5 and syabu, or ice.

"We don't know why cocaine has never quite taken off in Malaysia and
we are not exactly rushing to solve the mystery," he said.

So far, only foreign nationals, including a Peruvian and a Nigerian,
have been arrested for possession of cocaine.

As for heroin, drug busts have seen the arrest of locals and Indonesians.

Last Monday, eight people were detained after police discovered
RM11.05 million worth of high-grade heroin in a car at a hotel in the city.

The same day, a Peruvian was arrested in the city centre and
RM500,000 worth of cocaine was discovered in his stomach.

On May 11, seven people, including four Nigerians, were arrested and
RM1.5 million worth of cocaine and RM300,000 of syabu were seized in
raids in Kajang.