Deputy Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain said that the police was working with Interpol to track down the drug suspect, who hails from the north of the peninsula.
He said the man had left Malaysia almost a year ago.
“Most drug kingpins make Malaysia a transit country before the drugs are distributed to the international market,” he said during a special press conference at the Narcotics Complex of the Police Training Centre, Kuala Lumpur, today.
Razarudin said the wanted man also had business dealings in shipping, hospitality, tourism and transport, apart from being believed to be involved in the “black economy” and money laundering.
In the meantime, he said police had busted 279 drug syndicates and arrested more than 1,000 people, including drug kingpins, between Jan 1 and Nov 30 this year.
“Thus far, we have managed to arrest kingpins who were the masterminds in drug trafficking syndicates in Johor and Penang,” Razarudin said.
He admitted that it was quite difficult to identify kingpins of drug syndicates because they were using legitimate businesses as a front for their operations.
“If these kingpins are not arrested, they will recruit syndicate members. That poses a challenge to police,” he said.
Earlier, Razarudin said police had detected 92 drop points for drugs along Sungai Golok as a result of intelligence conducted by the narcotics criminal investigation department (NCID).
He said the short distance between Sungai Golok and the Malaysia-Thai border was among the contributing factors for the drug syndicates to set up drop points in the area.
“They (drug syndicates) only use boats at midnight which take less than five minutes to cross the river.
“Apart from that, they will also place gunny sacks containing drugs in the boat and steer it to the Kelantan border which is only 40m away and there will be people retrieving them at the river bank.”
Razarudin said police always monitored the activities of drug syndicates along the river but the syndicates knew their movements and assignments at the country’s borders.
“These syndicates know when the police are out on duty as well as when they finish work,” he said.