The man was caught when police conducted raids in five states last week.
A woman and 13 men were arrested on suspicision of being militants of the Islamic State terrorism network.
The bomb-maker was a trusted follower of Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, the Malaysian IS leader in Syria, according to a police press statement.
An improvised explosive device weighing 1kg was seized, and was believed to be for use against high-ranking police officers.
The Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar, said the 13 men and a woman were aged between 20 and 49 years. They were caught in Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Penang and Sabah by officers of the Counter-Terrorism Division of federal Special Branch between July 14 and July 20.
Four of them are unemployed, three are self-employed, two work as cooks at a franchise restaurant in the Klang Valley, two are employees of private companies, and the others are a mechanic, a welder and a student.
“Twelve of them are members of an IS cell broken up last month,” Khalid said. They are believed to have received direct orders from Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi to carry out terror attacks on Malaysian soil.
“One of them had admitted that he received an order from Wanndy to build an IED (improvised explosive device) for a planned attack in the Klang Valley, said Khalid in a statement released by Bukit Aman.
He had also shared his bomb-making knowledge through chat messaging with other IS members.
The bomb-maker told investigators that Wanndy had promised him a pistol, for protection against authorities.
Khalid said a 49-year-old man caught in Kedah was a senior IS recruiter who arranged for several Malaysians to travel to Syria. Among them was Abu Ghani Yaacob, also known as Abu Kedah, who was killed in Syria on April 17.
A Perak woman, aged 43, had been actively promoting IS ideology and had planned to travel to the southern Philippines to join an IS group with the help of Dr Mahmud Ahmad, who had joined with the Abu Sayyaf guerillas there, the statement said.
He said the suspects are being investigated under the Security Offences( Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
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