Nigerian with student visa held with 15kg of ganja

KUALA LUMPUR: A Nigerian who posed as a student at a private college here and his friend have been arrested for having almost 15kg of drugs.

City police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohmad Salleh said the two, aged 27 and 29, were arrested on Dec 22 at 10.30pm.

“One is a student at a college in Cheras. His travel documents shows he entered the country in 2008 using a student visa and again this year to attend a course at the same college,” he said at a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters here yesterday.

He said no information is available on the other suspect as no identification was found on him.
DCP Mohmad Salleh (second from right) and other police officers with the seized ganja Tuesday.

In the incident, city narcotics department officers inspected the suspect’s car and discovered 15 tightly packed packages of ganja in it.

The officers then went to a condominium unit where the suspects were staying in Taman Connaught, Cheras, and found another 1.1kg of ganja.

The total value of the drugs is around RM40,000.

DCP Mohmad Salleh expressed worry that increasingly foreign students here were found to be involved in drug and vice activities.

“Not only Nigerian (students are involved in the trade) but also others including Iranians,” he said.

He said the college had been notified of their student being arrested.

He did not rule out the possibility of probing the college.

The two have been remanded until Thursday.

It was reported that there are 110,000 foreign students in Malaysia and 32,000 of them were on short-term courses of less than six months.

Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah was reported as saying in October that an institution’s licence could be revoked if “a substantial number” of their foreign students were found to be involved in criminal activities.

“All institutions of higher learning should carry out background checks on their foreign students,” he was quoted saying.