KUALA LUMPUR: With an increasing number of people from Iran arrested in Malaysia as drug traffickers or drug mules, the police and Customs Department want the government to revoke the visa-onarrival policy for Iranians.

Sources told The Malay Mail this proposal was submitted to the Home Ministry recently, but at Press time, it could not be ascertained whether the government had decided on the matter.

Iranian citizens are given a 15-day visa upon arrival at any international airport in the country. There is no extension for such visas but those who obtain a visa from the Malaysian Embassy in Teheran before arrival can stay here for two months and the visa can be extended every two months.

Over the last few years, international law enforcement agencies have noted a rise in Iranian involvement in running laboratories making methamphetamine, known locally as syabu.

The influx of Iranian nationals has prompted police and Customs personnel at airports to pay special attention to these people when they disembark from direct flights or arrive through other Middle Eastern countries.

Federal Narcotics Department director Datuk Zul Hasnan Najib Baharuddin told a Press conference at Bukit Aman yesterday that since the beginning of the year, police arrested 39 Iranians, aged between 15 and 58 years, for syabu trafficking or being drug mules. The 15-year-old was arrested with his parents and the trio were found to be drug mules.

Apart from those from Iran, police also arrested three Malaysians, a Filipina and a Singaporean during this period for similar offences. The suspects will be charged under Section 39B of the 1952 Dangerous Drugs Act, which carries the mandatory death sentence.

Zul Hasnan said police seized more than 42kg of syabu with a street value estimated at RM10.5 million during the period. Also seized were assets and cash worth RM225,850.

In contrast, he said, police last year arrested 20 Iranians, including one woman, and seized syabu weighing 17kg.

The Iranian drug mules' favourite methods of transporting the drug were by swallowing syabu in plastic packets and hiding the drug in bags or toiletries or soaking it in their clothes. Most of the arrests were made with information provided by foreign law enforcement agencies.

Last Friday night, three Iranians, including two women, were detained by Customs at the KL International Airport in Sepang for trying to bring in syabu worth RM13.6 million.

Customs investigations director Datuk Abidin Taib had said the trio had arrived from Dubai on flight EK342. The drugs, weighing 54.54kg, were found in two suitcases.

"The two women were in their 20s and 40s while the man with them was in his 40s," Abidin had said.