Syndicates reportedly use social media platforms such as WhatsApp and WeChat to sell drugs to school children in Malaysia, the National Drug Agency (NADA) reported.
"Our investigation showed that social media apps are being used to sell [or seek] drugs..." Suhaimi told reporters after a Border Operation at Malaysia's Immigration, Customs, and Quarantine Complex.
The modus was caught after investigation on school children who were detained was conducted, Suhaimi Abu Bakar, NADA's assistant enforcement director, said, commenting on the case of a 15-year-old boy who reportedly stabbed his younger sister in the district of Sik.
Aside from buying, Suhaimi said kids were also being recruited to sell illegal drugs and use social media apps to gain more sales.
"Those in the group were mostly friends from the same neighborhood or school, because they can be easily influenced," he said.
The selling of drugs across social media is nothing new. In fact, senior officers from a UK-based group Addaction warned parents how many teenagers use a variety of hashtags and emojis as codes to get in touch with sellers.
"Some hashtags like #BOOM, are specific to each dealer, but they always change quickly because people catch up. As soon as an organization has worked out what's happening, they'll have moved onto something else," Sarah Goodall, Young Addaction's team leader, said.
According to Wigan and Leigh Recovery Partnership's Addaction team, criminals are targeting young people through social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat without any explicit references to transactions, instead, peddlers meet the kids in person.
Addaction staff admitted hurdles in policing the issue, specifying the problem of invading child's privacy.
"We're seeing this happening with younger and younger people. They talk about it so casually, I don't think they realized how open they're leaving themselves to danger by getting in cars with older men and strangers," Services manager Siobhan Peters said.
Meanwhile, check out this tips on new WhatsApp tricks you should try: