KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian vessel intercepted by Indonesian authorities with 1.16 tonnes of ketamine had taken delivery of the drugs from a foreign mothership in the Andaman Sea.

Bukit Aman Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) director Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said the foreign mothership was believed to be registered in a country within the Golden Triangle region.

"Based on information received from the Indonesian National Police (Polri), the drugs were loaded through a ship-to-ship transfer in the Andaman Sea," he told the New Straits Times.

A ship-to-ship transfer involves moving cargo directly between two vessels at sea without either having to dock at a port.