Penang customs director Abdul Halim Ramli said acting on intelligence findings, a team from the department’s narcotics unit raided the courier services company at Raja Uda Business Centre at 6pm on Dec 22, and seized 10 boxes containing children’s bicycle frames and tyres.

“The team then found 104 packets of methamphetamine weighing 18kg in total, hidden in the bicycle tyres,” he told a press conference here today.

Further investigations, he said, are being conducted to identify the sender, a bicycle seller in Penang, and the recipient, whose address is in a country in the Oceania region.

“We believe the drugs were meant to be smuggled out of the country, and that the drug syndicate used the courier service as a tactic to fool the authorities,” he said.

Halim added that no arrests had been made so far.

“Anyone with knowledge of a syndicate or such activities are urged to inform the authorities,” he said, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.