SHAH ALAM – Police are looking for individuals who sold ecstasy pills at the Pinkfish Countdown 2024 concert in Bandar Sunway on New Year’s Eve, which authorities believe could have caused the deaths of four revellers.
Selangor Police Chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said they believe each pill was sold for RM50 each, while a packet of three pills was priced at RM100.
However, he added that it was also possible for the pills to be bought outside and not on the concert premises.
“Investigations so far have found that ecstasy pills were consumed (by the victims) and some of them also drank alcohol. So we are still waiting for the autopsy report to know the cause of death.
“Some may have obtained (drugs) from outside and some also bought them on the premises, so there could have been individuals hanging around there to sell ecstasy pills,” Hussein told a press conference at the Selangor police headquarters here, today.
Police last night said ecstasy was consumption was detected in the four deceased, and two others – totalling seven people – who attended the Pinkfish concert, which features electronic dance music (EDM).
Confirmation that ecstasy had been consumed was in reports by the University of Malaya Medical Centre and the Kuala Lumpur Hospital to the police.
The seven had attended the concert separately, police also noted.
Aside from the four who died, as of last night, two were still in the ICU, while one more was discharged from hospital.
The organisers of Pinkfish Countdown 2024 yesterday issued a statement pledging full cooperation with police, also noting that the four deaths took place outside the concert premises.
Police have opened four sudden death reports (SDRs) in response to the fatalities to investigate possible elements of foul play or poisoning.
Fatalities at EDM festivals are not new in Malaysia. In March 2014, six people, including three women, died after attending the Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA) in Bukit Jalil. The victims, aged 19 to 28, were pronounced dead en route to hospitals.
At the time, police confirmed that methamphetamine, a synthetic drug, was linked to the FMFA fatalities.
However, post-mortem findings later stated that heatstroke, not drug overdose, caused the deaths of six individuals at FMFA 2014, challenging long-standing assumptions about the incident. – January 3, 2025