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The Star – 27/05/2008
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian student Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar has failed in her final attempt to quash her conviction and jail term for attempting to smuggle syabu at the Narita International Airport in 2006.
The decision was pronounced by the Japan Supreme Court on May 20, which found the argument by Raja Munirah’s counsel of a breach of procedural law as not appropriate for leave to appeal to the court.
When contacted, her counsel Rosal Azimin Ahmad said Raja Munirah was saddened by the decision but took it calmly.
Raja Munirah, 23, was sentenced to seven years and six months in jail and fined 1.5 million yen (about RM46,800) in default 250 days’ jail by the Japan High Court after she pleaded guilty to the offence.
Her sentence was to run from the date of her arrest on Dec 20, 2006.
However, she was given a reduction of 270 days and now has to serve six years and nine months in jail. She is currently jailed at the Tokyo detention centre in Kosuge.
Rosal Azimin is also appealing to the public for donations to pay for Raja Munirah’s fine.
Raja Munirah was arrested at the Narita Airport, when 690.80gm of syabu were found in her bag.
She claimed the bag was bought by an Iranian friend for her carry her winter clothes and that it was handed to her at KLIA before leaving for Tokyo.
Raja Munirah was going to Tokyo to attend an interview for a job as a public relations officer. – Bernama
By ANDREW SAGAYAM
KUALA LUMPUR: Police have smashed an international drug trafficking syndicate that pays local college students up to RM35,000 to courier heroin overseas by swallowing them or inserting them up the anus.
Five of the syndicate members – four West African men and a local woman – have been arrested and drugs worth RM1.7mil was seized during a raid at an apartment in Damansara Perdana near here.
Investigations revealed that the students were each paid between RM16,000 and RM35,000 for a single job, and they were sent to countries like Australia, China, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Japan, Trinidad and Tobago.
Police also believe that three Malaysian students who were caught overseas for drug trafficking sometime last year could be linked to the syndicate that had been operating here for over a year.
Illicit cargo: Some of the seized drugs are packed into sachet form to be swallowed or inserted in the anus by couriers.
Federal narcotics crime investigations department director Comm Datuk Zul Hasnan Najib Baharuddin said the students smuggled the drugs either by swallowing the packets of drugs or inserting them in their anus.
“We arrested five people including four men from West Africa and a local woman aged between 30 and 48 years old during a raid on an apartment in Damansara Perdana on Tuesday after monitoring them for about a month.
“Our investigations revealed that the West Africans entered the country after obtaining student visas to pursue studies at colleges and universities,” he said, adding that police arrested them while they were in the midst of packing the drugs.
Police seized 3.1kg of heroin and 126 sachets containing the drug during the raid.
Comm Zul Hasnan said initial investigations revealed that the local woman would approach students either at colleges or cafes while the African men met potential couriers via the Internet.
“The students believed they would escape inspection if they consumed or hid the drug packets inside their bodies,” he added.
Comm Zul Hasnan warned students to be wary of strangers who offered them lucrative sums for such jobs as there had been cases of Malaysian students being detained at foreign prisons for drug trafficking.
Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar, 22, Umi Azlim Mohamad Lazim, 24, and Irene Manggi, 22, are among 32 women arrested overseas.
Raja Munirah was arrested in Tokyo, Umi Azlim in Guangzhou and Irene in Sao Paulo.
They befriended foreigners over the Internet and were duped into trafficking drugs. The women were promised high paying jobs and expensive overseas holidays.
The Star – 30/12/2007
International drug syndicates are targeting young Malaysian women to be their mules overseas, but their con is becoming more and more difficult to detect.
FOR many, it was too good to resist. A job with a “multinational” in a ritzy office, cool boss, good money and travel opportunities – how lucky can a fresh graduate get?
However, as a few young Malaysians recently discovered, the dream can easily turn into a nightmare. The bright future instantly dimmed as they find themselves languishing in foreign jails or biding time until their execution under another country’s law.
Chew: ‘Ensure the foreign culprits do not get off scott-free’
Umi Azlim Mohamad Lazim, a 24-year-old graduate of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, could not believe her luck when she saw the high-paying courier job advertised on the Net early this year. She was caught at Shantou airport in China with 2,983gms of heroin in her luggage, and has been sentenced to death.
Neither could Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar, 22, a mass communication student in a private college in Cyberjaya, who travelled to Japan to be interviewed for a well-paid job last year, as recommended by her Iranian friend.
Her “helpful” friend even bought her a travelling bag and winter clothes, which he passed to her just before she departed. This proved to be a costly gift as Raja Munirah was later caught in the Narita International Airport with drugs in her locked luggage. Charged with trafficking in 690gm of Syabu, she is now serving a seven-year-and-one-month jail term in Kosuke Detention Centre, Tokyo.
Previously, most drug traffickers played on women’s emotions with promises of love to get them to do their dirty jobs. The “casanovas” usually lured these women by showering them with expensive gifts before sending them off on all-expense paid holidays to foreign destinations, where they were requested to pass a gift to a friend or relative.
These days, many drug syndicates prey on the MTV generation’s need for instant gratification and materialistic aspirations, with the quick buck and high-flying lifestyle the common carrots.
“Unfortunately, many of our young are easily conned because they are simply too impatient to get rich and attain the high lifestyle they aspire to,” said lawyer Rosal Azimin Ahmad, who was hired by Raja Munirah’s family to help defend her.
According to Tenaganita programme coordinator Aegile Fernandez, the problem is intensified by globalisation.
“Drug syndicates have become international with their members easily travelling in and out of Malaysia under the guise of tourists and students. Our work on trafficking has revealed that our borders are porous as it is easy for foreigners to enter the country and smuggle in drugs or weapons,” she alleged.
Muhammad Shafee: ‘Many of the young Malaysian girls caught were naive’
The modus operandi of drug syndicates has also become more insidious, added Rosal Azimin.
“It is a rich syndicate, so many can put up a rich cover like a good office while their members live and dress well. They can also afford to take time to gain not only their target’s confidence but also the family and friends. Like in Raja Munirah’s case, the Iranian man who conned her is close to her family, having been to their house many times.
“For work, sometimes it is not even a courier job, you might be hired for another job, and when you are settled in, maybe six months down the road, you might be sent on an overseas assignment. So, you can’t really blame the girls who get duped for being stupid or careless,” he said.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong also believes that many of the young mules were duped and exploited by international drug syndicates.
“Some of these girls responded to job offers by international companies set up by Middle Easterners and Africans in Kuala Lumpur that put up job advertisements.
“The bosses would bring them for meetings with the so-called VIPs and even take them to meetings overseas.
“So, bringing documents and brief cases are natural and these girls do not know that the drugs were implanted inside.
“The girls were all innocent and they could pass through the watchful eyes of drug enforcers trained to observe people at the airport. They did not know that they were carrying drugs until their bags were screened. We must help them,” Chong said.
News reports revealed that in the past 11 months, about 32 Malaysian women in the 20 to 40 age group have been arrested for their involvement.
Women, Family and Community Development Ministry parliamentary secretary Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun argued that most of the time greed landed people into trouble.
She said no one would offer so much of money for an easy job.
“Therefore, Malaysians, especially young women, must not easily fall into such a trap, and trust strangers in a short period of time.”
Information important
Jobstreet.com vice-president (Marketing), Simon Si urged young jobseekers to always be careful and cautious when it comes to jobs that seem very lucrative (abnormally high salary) for very little effort.
“Such “dream” jobs rarely exist. The most important when accepting a job offer is to be absolutely sure about the company you will be working for and absolutely clear about your role and responsibility in that position,” he said.
He added it is crucial that they take the effort to do some background checks.
“The Internet is a good source to get information on companies. If the job is posted by a recruitment agency, a check with the Human Resource Ministry can help to determine if the agency is properly licensed. If it is a company, its record would be with the Registrar of Companies,” he said, adding that looking for a job through established recruitment companies such a JobStreet.com is much safer as they will have a verification measure in place.
He explained, at Jobstreet , jobs that are posted with insufficient information on type of job and requirements will be highlighted by the system, hence it will be checked and if the information provided is not satisfactory the job does not get posted.
“If jobseekers are called for an interview, they should take the effort during the job interview to learn more about each other for the purpose of filling a position within an organisation,” said Si, adding that if it is suspicious, the job offer should be turned down.
A graphic artist in her mid-thirties who only wanted to be known as Reena relayed her experience of being offered a courier job for a foreign NGO in the Middle East in one of the social networks on the Internet.
“At first it seemed harmless enough as the job is to deliver relief supplies to disaster and war torn areas. Then I got suspicious about why the organisation had to recruit people through the Internet, and started asking questions.”
She became more suspicious when she was told that she would not be allowed to open and check the packages.
“I kept egging him and his breaking point came when I asked why they did not use courier service for the deliveries and he just snapped back that if I was not interested, there are many others who need the money willing to do the job,” she said.
She added, however, that she might have jumped at the opportunity without a thought if she had been younger and more naive.
Young girls the target
Prominent lawyer Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who defended the case of Ruzana Zubir who was arrested in Australia for smuggling 5kg of opium last year, believes that many of the Malaysian girls who were caught were naive.
“Young girls with not much experience travelling overseas are certainly not aware of the kind of complications that they can get into right from the time they a board a plane and land at foreign airports,” he said.
Muhammad Shafee said in the case of Ruzana, it was proven without doubt that she was not aware of the nature of substances she was carrying.
Ruzana who was arrested on April 1, 2005 after Australian customs officers seized a tar-like block wrapped in tape from her luggage when she arrived in Sydney. She was later freed and acquitted by an Australian court of the charge.
Chew urged the police to find the root cause. “If it is the foreigners, try to arrest them to ensure the culprits do not get off scott- free.”
“We at the ministry level will discuss on what can be done to ensure young women do not get cheated by foreigners, until they end up in prison,” she added.
One area that needed attention is the dissemination of information on the dangers, said Fernandez.
“In the past there were many campaigns and posters to raise awareness on the dangers of getting duped into drug trafficking. That has stopped,” she said.
Fernandez stressed that a problem was that the authorities are not doing enough to nab the big players – the syndicates.
“We are nabbing the addicts and the couriers but more needs to be done to catch the syndicates’ big bosses,” she said.
Muhammad Shafee agreed, “Many of them were targeted by foreigners, where the initial contact is made in Malaysia, and I believe that the police should unravel the people behind the syndicate.”
Reports by LEE YUK PENG, MANJIT KAUR, ANDREW SAGAYAM and HARIATI AZIZAN
The Star – 30/12/2007
PETALING JAYA: It is a dream job at an international company dealing with the import-export of goods. The office is swanky with various branches overseas. Cool boss, good money and if you are lucky, the chance to travel – what more could a fresh graduate ask for?
More than they bargained for, apparently, as some young Malaysians have recently discovered.
One is Umi Azlim Mohamad Lazim, a 24-year-old graduate of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, who was enticed by a high-paying courier job advertised on the Net early this year. She was caught at Shantou airport in China with 2,983g of heroin in her luggage. She has been sentenced to death.
Another is Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar, 22, a mass communication student at a private college in Cyberjaya, who travelled to Japan to be interviewed for a well-paid job last year, as recommended by her Iranian friend.
She is languishing in a Japanese jail, serving a seven-year jail term after being caught with drugs at the Narita International Airport.
News reports reveal that in the past 11 months, about 32 Malaysian women between the ages of 20 and 40 had been arrested for their involvement as couriers.
Federal narcotics department director Comm Datuk Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin said that while there are a few who were tricked into trafficking drugs by their foreign friends or acquaintances, many of the young women were lured by good money and free overseas trips.
He believes the number of women involved in smuggling drugs could be much higher than what’s on police record. There are also many women consciously working for drug syndicates.
“Up to now, over 30 women, mostly in their 20s, have been nabbed but we won’t be surprised if the number of women acting as couriers is triple that,” he said.
Foreign Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek agreed that many were inexperienced and unaware of the foreign country’s laws and culture.
“Their cases show a similar pattern: many of them are first-time travellers and had just got their passports,” he said.
Lawyer Rosal Azimin Ahmad, who was hired by Raja Munirah’s family to help defend her, pointed out that international drug syndicates have a new modus operandi.
“Many syndicates use the cover of international companies to lure young women with big salaries and travel opportunities. They prey on young people’s ambition to make fast money without working too hard. Unfortunately, many of them are easily conned because they are simply too impatient to get rich,” he said.
He added it was getting more difficult to distinguish between a real business entity and a drug syndicate as many now go the extra mile to put up a facade of legitimacy.
“The syndicates now make a lot of money so they can afford to set up an office while their members live and dress well.
“They can also afford to take time to gain not only their target’s confidence but also that of the family and friends.
“For work, they offer the young women different positions, not a courier’s job. When they are settled in, maybe six months down the road, they will be sent on an overseas assignment,” he said.
Reports by LEE YUK PENG, MANJIT KAUR, ANDREW SAGAYAM and HARIATI AZIZAN
The Star – 28/12/2007
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has to be more aware of the people coming into the country, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said.
He said this was because foreigners were behind all cases of Malaysian women being detained overseas for drug trafficking.
“The syndicates, all headed by foreigners, are operating out of here. We must not allow our people be made use of in this manner.
“We want to encourage tourism but we have to be aware of these people,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters after opening the Bumiputra Factory and Industrial Services Association’s annual general meeting.
Syed Hamid said many of the women involved in the cases did not know what they were getting themselves into and were blinded by the promise of making lots of money.
“Some who did know what they were doing might have assumed that other countries do not have the death sentence for trafficking or smuggling drugs,” he said.
“I have been briefed on more than 50 cases, many involving women in their 20s.”
Syed Hamid said the countries Malaysians had been caught in included Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela and China.
“As for the case involving Umi Azlim Mohamad Lazim in China, my ministry is in contact with her family and we are trying to provide whatever assistance possible,” he said.
The Star – 17/12/2007
THE chances of gaining freedom for a 22-year-old Malaysian woman detained in Japan on charges for drug smuggling look brighter now that there is evidence to show that she was the victim on an international syndicate, said Mingguan Malaysia .
Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar’s lawyer Rosal Azimin Ahmad said the new evidence, obtained by the Narcotics Department at Bukit Aman, would be submitted in an appeal to a Japanese court in April.
“We have good cooperation from Bukit Aman police but we cannot divulge the nature of the evidence at present.
“We are also updating old evidence, which can be helpful in Raja Munirah’s appeal,” he said in an interview.
Raja Munirah, a mass communications graduate from a private college in Cyberjaya, has been jailed for seven years and four months and is now at the Kosuke detention centre in Tokyo.
She arrived at Narita airport on Dec 20 last year with 690.9g of syabu hidden inside her suitcase.
She claimed to have been misled by an Iranian student into going for an interview for a job as a public relations officer with a monthly salary of RM10,000 in Tokyo.
Raja Munirah had also alleged that the suitcase was bought for her to fit in her winter clothing.
The Star – 05/12/2007
KUALA LUMPUR: A High Court in Japan has rejected an appeal by Malaysian student Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar to throw out her conviction and sentence for attempting to smuggle in 690g of syabu at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport last year.
The court, however, reduced her jail term of seven years and four months’ by 100 days.
Her lawyer, Rosal Azimin Ahmad, said he would appeal to the Supreme Court over the decision.
He said the defence has 10 days to file the appeal.
Raja Munirah, 22, a mass communication student at a private college in Malaysia, pleaded guilty to the offence committed on Dec 20 last year.
She had claimed she was framed by an Iranian man who asked her to carry the luggage through the customs checkpoint. She said she did not know the contents.
She is serving her sentence at the Tokyo detention centre in Kosuge. – Bernama
The Star – 04/12/2007
PASIR PUTEH (Kelantan): A 24-year-old woman from Kelantan has been sentenced to death by the Guangzhou High Court in China for trafficking in 2,983gm of heroin.
Umi Azlim Mohamad Lazim was sentenced on May 15 and has two years from the date of conviction to file an appeal.
Her mother, Umi Slaia Ibrahim, 45, said the family had not heard from her for a year and was shocked to receive a letter dated July 12 from Wisma Putra stating that her daughter was being held in China since Jan 19.
Umi Azlim: Her family had not heard from her for a yea“This is so distressing,” Umi Slaia said at her home in Kampung Tok Kamis here yesterday.
The drugs were found in Umi Azlim’s luggage on arrival in Shantou.
Umi Azlim is a Universiti Malaysia Sabah graduate and said to have been working for a company selling foot massage equipment in Kuala Lumpur.
Her mother said Umi Azlim was frequently sent abroad as she was fluent in English.
“She used to call home regularly but the calls stopped in January,” she said.
Another Malaysian, Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar, 22, is being held at Tokyo’s Kosuke detention centre also for drug smuggling. – Bernama
The Star – 03/12/2007
KUALA LUMPUR: The mother of Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar, who was sentenced to seven years’ jail by a Japanese court for attempting to smuggle drugs, believes that her daughter was hoodwinked by an Iranian man.
Karimah Mamat, 46, said the Iranian man whom she knew as Milad, had offered Munirah a monthly salary of about RM9,000 if she took up a job as a public relations officer with his company in Japan.
Munirah: Pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 690gm of syabu at the Narita International Airport last year.
He also came to my house several times and I thought he was a good man. He even arranged everything for her because I did not have the money to send her to Japan,” she said.
A day before Munirah left for Japan for the interview, Milad came to her house and told Munirah, who had initially planned to carry a big suitcase, that it was better for her to bring a smaller one, she said.
He also agreed to lend Munirah his bag, Karimah said.
“I am sure my daughter was hoodwinked. I know my daughter. She spends her holidays at home with her younger siblings. She is not a person who likes to party or socialise,” she said.
Raja Munirah, 22, is a mass communications student at a private college here.
She was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty, on her counsel’s advice, to attempting to smuggle 690gm of syabu at the Narita International Airport in Tokyo, on Dec 20 last year.
Her appeal will be heard tomorrow.
“At first, it was difficult for me to let her go but because we needed money at the time to pay for house and car instalments and other bills, I finally agreed,” Karimah said.
Munirah decided to quit college because her tuition fees were high. Had she landed the job, she would have been able to help her siblings Raja Nazrin Shah, 18; Raja Maizurah, 15; Raja Ridzuan Shah, 10; and Raja Daniel Shah, three, Karimah said.
Munirah’s lawyer, Rosal Azimin Ahmad, said Japanese businessman Takashi Kato, 58 and his wife, Kaoru Kato, 52, had offered to help Munirah in any way they could, including acting as interpreters during the appeal hearing.
“Munirah’s lawyer in Japan, Nishiguchi, does not speak English.”
Asked on Munirah’s chances of winning, Rosal said: “50-50 but anything is possible. – Bernama
The Star – 27/09/2007
Raja Munira: Sentenced to four months’ jail by a Japanese court
ANOTHER pretty girl has been duped into smuggling drugs abroad.
Utusan Malaysia front-paged the shattered dream of 22-year-old Raja Munira Raja Iskandar, who ended up in jail instead of securing the high paying job that was promised to her in Japan.
A Japanese court sentenced her to four months’ jail for attempting to traffic several packets of syabu at the Narita International Airport on Dec 20 last year.
Raja Munira, 22, a mass communication student of a private college, claimed she was innocent of the charge.
She alleged that an Iranian man whom she knew as Milad had cheated and exploited her into smuggling the synthetic drugs.
Defence counsel Rosal Azimin Ahmad claimed that the Iranian man had promised Raja Munira a post as a public relations officer in a company in Japan.
On her arrival at the airport, the Iranian man allegedly made her carry through the Customs checkpoint a luggage of which she did not know the contents.
She was detained when the drugs were found while the Iranian, who had passed through the checkpoint earlier, went scot-free.
Syndicate “taking over” old quarters of the Sungai Buloh Leprosy Hospital
KOSMO! front-paged a report of a syndicate “taking over” several old quarters of the Sungai Buloh Leprosy Hospital and renting out the units to 29 Indonesians – with working permits – at just RM50 monthly each.
Adding to the disturbing discovery, the tabloid said 71 illegal Indonesian workers had cleared 12ha of the hospital grounds for planting and building their kongsi (living quarters).
The daily quoted Immigration enforcement director Datuk Ishak Mohamad as saying that 63 Indonesians were nabbed in a 3am raid on Tuesday for several offences, including being in possession of expired or false travel documents or not carrying any kind of document.
He said the raid was conducted after the foreign workers ignored several eviction notices by the hospital.
On another immigration issue, the department admitted in a front-page report in Sinar Harian that there has lately been an influx of Africans into the country.
Last year, 100 were arrested for misusing their travel documents while 99 have been caught so far this year.
The paper quoted Ishak as saying that the department would monitor their movements closely as many of them overstayed and were involved in criminal activities.
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