Johor police chief M Kumar said the cartridges were being sold for RM200 to RM300 each.

He said three raids around Johor Bahru last week saw the arrests of three men and a woman. Another man was arrested at the parking lot of an apartment on Oct 16.

Following their arrests, two more raids were conducted, leading to the arrests of a man and woman, believed to be lovers, on Oct 17.

“The syndicate has been active since August.

“Their method has been to conduct their activities on the go, renting an apartment for about a week before moving to another location to avoid detection,” Harian Metro reported him as saying at the Johor police headquarters today.

Kumar said police seized 16.3kg of powdered ecstasy, 294 ecstasy pills, 225g of ketamine, 68.87g of methamphetamine, 140 Erimin-5 pills, 14.75g of marijuana and 330ml of unidentified liquid narcotics in 10 vape cartridges, as well as five vape liquid refill bottles.

He said the seized drugs could have been used by 76,621 addicts.

Urine tests found three of the suspects, aged between 27 and 44, positive for methamphetamine use.

Two of them had convictions for crime and drug cases.

Bernama also reported him as saying at the same press conference that police busted another drug syndicate in a raid on Tuesday.

Two men and one woman were arrested in an apartment that was also used as a storage and processing facility for drugs before distribution in the local market.

“In this operation, we seized 5.025kg of powdered ecstasy, 189ml of ecstasy liquid and 1.65g of ketamine.

“Police also seized two cars worth RM155,000 and cash totalling RM1,850. The total value of the seizures from this operation is RM1.027 million,” he said.

Kumar said all the suspects from the two syndicates have been remanded for seven days from Oct 16 under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for trafficking.