Bernama reported Terengganu police chief Khairi Khairudin as saying the drugs were discovered during a traffic operation at Km62 of Jalan Kuala Terengganu-Kota Bharu at around 9am, inside a Toyota Vellfire abandoned by a man in his 30s who fled into a nearby oil palm plantation.

“The suspect, believed to be a local, suddenly stopped by the roadside in a suspicious manner about 100m away from a traffic police team.

“While the team was approaching the vehicle, the man suddenly exited the vehicle and fled into the plantation,” he said during a press conference at the Setiu police headquarters today.

Khairi said the fire and rescue department helped unlock the vehicle, which contained silver and gold plastic packets filled with a crystal-like substance believed to be methamphetamine.

He said a Mitsubishi Triton was also spotted acting suspiciously about 1km from the scene, believed to be linked to the suspect.

“The driver of the Triton attempted to ram into police officers, forcing them to fire shots at the vehicle’s tyres.

“The suspect sped off and later abandoned the locked 4WD in an oil palm plantation.

“The Toyota Vellfire’s original licence plates were discovered inside the vehicle,” he said.

Khairi said police were tracking down both suspects, with the aid of the police K9 unit and the General Operations Force.

“Preliminary investigations found that the drugs were being smuggled from Kelantan for distribution outside of Terengganu and could have supplied 1.2 million addicts,” he said.

The case is being investigated for trafficking under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.