950827

Most-wanted

drug lord held

in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police have captured a major drug trafficker believed to be running one of the biggest heroin supply syndicates in Southeast Asia, local news reports said.

"The male suspect is believed to be the leader of a syndicate involved in the importing, processing and distributing of heroin for the local and overseas market," a police spokesman was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times.

Police said the suspect, caught during a raid early Thursday, had topped their most-wanted list since he fled the country in the early 1990's when local police caught on to his drug activities.

Police also arrested two other men, believed to be accomplices in running the group's local drug operations. Under Malaysian law, all three will face mandatory hanging if convicted.

Police said the drug lord also headed a major secret society here with links to triads in Hong Kong.

Since he left Malaysia, the suspect - whom police say is the elder brother of notorious gangster Botak Chin, hanged in 1981 and stolen passports to oversee his drug empire.-APP