First quarter saw 825 out 25,563 students screened for drugs testing positive

The first quarter of this year saw 825 of the 23,583 secondary school students screened for drugs testing positive, said Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

He said some of them were even drug pushers.

"We are going after them. The National Anti-Drugs Agency has been given the task to weed out the drug problem in schools," he told reporters after presenting AADK''s excellence awards for 2016 here on Tuesday.

Nur Jazlan, who is also president of PEMADAM, an association to tackle the drug problem in the country, said concerted action was needed from all parties to rid the country of the drug scourge.

In KUALA LUMPUR, Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said police arrested 31 individuals, 27 men and four women, who were believed to be members of a loan sharking syndicate, in several states on Monday.

He said the suspects, aged between 23 and 40 years, were picked up in simultaneous raids in

Selangor, Johor, Penang , Kedah, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan.

"All were Malaysians and most of them were debt collectors," he said in a statement.

In KOTA BHARU, Kota Bharu deputy police chief Supt Setapa Yusuf said police were closing in on a man suspected to have broken into the Kelantan Menteri Besar''s office and state Treasury office at Kompleks Kota Darul Naim here Monday.

He said the the suspect was identified via CCTV recordings.

"Th suspect is believed to have fled with cash amounting to RM1,500 and two emerald rings worth RM1,000 belong to a worker there," he told reporters.

He added that the suspect had 13 previous records since 2000 for breaking and entry and carjacking.

-- BERNAMA