Malaysian drug syndicates adopted smarter ways to avoid police

"Their aim is to satisfy their customers with a product that has been adulterated to avoid it being categorised as a dangerous drug while having the same effect. The active ingredients are constantly changed with chemicals not listed under the Dangerous Drugs Act (which carries the death penalty)," Federal Narcotics Crime Investigation Department chief Comm Noor Rashid Ibrahim said.

Syndicates have set up more laboratories, hiring chemists from China and the Netherlands and acquiring state-of-the-art equipment to synthesise the drugs, he said.

The authorities are alarmed by the sharp increase in the number of pills seized 4.13 million in the first half of this year compared to 87,000 for the whole of 2011.

"Getting high on party drugs is becoming increasingly dangerous as the components in the cocktail of stimulants have become more deadly compared with the party pills available a decade ago," Star newspaper quoted Ibrahim as saying.