Four men, including the owner of the company, were arrested in two houses here in an operation carried out by the state narcotics crime investigation department on Oct 3.

Selangor police chief Hussein Omar Khan said 1,100 bottles filled with 550 litres of ketum juice were seized.

Also seized were 41 cartons of illicit cigarettes.

“The suspects, aged between 21 and 42, comprised the company owner, two company workers and an unemployed man,” Hussein said at a press conference at the Sungai Buloh police headquarters here today.

Two of the suspects are foreigners.

He said the syndicate sold each 500ml bottle for RM5 during the day and RM10 at night due to higher demand around that time.

The syndicate, believed to have been active since 2021, started small but saw its illegal business grow exponentially this year as demand increased, raking in RM20,000 every month, he said.

Investigations showed that the syndicate received 50kg of ketum leaves from Perak every month before processing them into the end-product.

The suspects have been remanded for seven days and the case is being investigated under Section 30(3) of the Poisons Act 1952 and Section 135(1)(e) of the Customs Act 1967.