Four Malaysians arrested in Indonesia drugs bust: police

Four Malaysians have been arrested in Indonesia after allegedly being caught with ecstasy worth more than five million dollars, the national police chief said Friday.

Lim Jit Wee, 41, Chua Lik Chang, 52, Lim Piek Kiong, 47, and Thio Bok An, 60, had planned to set up an ecstasy factory with the help of Chinese experts, General Sutanto was quoted by AFP as telling a press briefing.

When they were arrested they were in possession of almost 500,000 tablets, 136,000 dollars worth of rupiah and Singaporean notes, 2.3 grams of methamphetamine and 45 grams of ketamine, another party drug, Sutanto said.

The arrests came after an Indonesian man, 50-year-old Abdurrohim, was held on November 10 for allegedly possessing 9,800 ecstasy pills, Sutanto said.

"In the apartment of Chua Lik Chang we found 470,000 ecstasy pills, 24 500-gram cans of phosphorus and three 500-gram bottles of iodium crystals, suspected of being used to cut the pills," he told the briefing.