Condo grow raided
A police narcotics team raided two plush condominium units in the exclusive Signal Hill area near downtown Kota Kinabalu on 29 January 2014 and arrested five people, including a French woman in her 30s.[1][2] Officers entered the first unit at about 11.30am and arrested the woman and a local 25-year-old man, recovering 19 cannabis plants still growing in pots and one already harvested.[1] About an hour later they raided a second unit in the same complex, seizing five more growing plants and two harvested ones, and detained a maid there before arresting two local men in their 20s who walked in and said they were the unit’s occupants.[1]
The team also recovered about half a kilogram of processed cannabis divided into three packages, along with growing equipment such as devices to speed up the crop and fertiliser.[1][2] Police said the French woman had been in Sabah for about a year and were working out whether the plants came from cuttings or seeds, describing the setup as professional.[1]
Trafficking charges likely
Police investigated the five for illegally growing the plants and for drug trafficking, which carries a mandatory death sentence on conviction in Malaysia.[1][2] Sabah police chief Hamza Taib said the papers would go to the attorney general’s office and that trafficking charges were very likely.[2]
