KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Police have crippled an international drug trafficking syndicate with the arrest of five of its members here on Monday.

The five - three African and two Pakistani men - were nabbed in Jalan Chow Kit at 5.30pm and police also seized 2.9kg of cocaine with a street value of RM600,000.

Police believe that the syndicate, which has been active here for the past years, used Malaysia as transit point and that none of the drugs seized were to be sold locally.

Federal narcotics crime investigation department deputy director Senior Asst Comm I Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan said the drugs were packed in capsule form and that syndicate members smuggled them by swallowing the 10g capsule.

"We arrested three West African and two Pakistani men aged between 25 and 39 years in Jalan Chow Kit after one of them was seen acting suspiciously," he added.

SAC I Mohd Shukri said two of the Africans claimed to be students and had been in the city for a year.

"The two Pakistani men are believed to be transporters as they arrived only on Sunday on a travel visa," he said.

He added that five men were arrested under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act and would be remanded until March 17.

SAC I Mohd Shukri said police believed this syndicate was connected to another syndicate that was busted earlier this month, which paid foreign students to smuggle drugs by swallowing or inserting them up the anus.

He said police had already solved four other drug trafficking cases this year.