M’sia sentences 3 men to death for trafficking nearly 1.5 tonnes of meth

Three Malaysian men have been sentenced to death for trafficking nearly 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine.

Bags of tea

According to Free Malaysia Today, the methamphetamine was stored in a container on a fish farm.

The drugs were concealed in 2,000 packets of Chinese tea and amounted to 1,482.96 kg of methamphetamine.

The manner of their concealment, as well as their location, was cited as a factor when deciding their sentence.

Johor High Court judge Abu Bakar Katar said that in addition to how the drugs were hidden, the total weight of the narcotics was a factor when deciding on the death penalty.

That’s a lot of meth

1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine is an extremely large amount of meth, and was at the time the largest single haul of narcotics in Malaysia.

According to a social media post made by the Johor branch of Malaysia’s police just after the initial raid, the haul was so large that the police had trouble fitting it into the same picture.

Police leaders attending the presentation seemed amazed by its size when posing with the haul.

The post estimated the value of the drugs to be RM103.2 million (S$34 million), but curiously noted that the seized drugs amounted to 2.06 tons.

However, the record haul has since been eclipsed by a 2020 haul of over 2.16 tonnes.

Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty for offences in 2023.

In addition, there has been a moratorium on executions since 2018, so it is unclear if or when the three men will ultimately face their sentence.

Top image via Polis Johor/Facebook