Bids to smuggle goods in, people out foiled
Published on: Friday, April 29, 2016
Tawau: A team from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency foiled an attempt to smuggle Indonesian goods into the district via the waters off Sungai Haji Kuning, here, on Wednesday. District Maritime Director Anor Jaafar said the items, which included 15 sacks of medicines and cosmetics, 30 cartons of Marlboro cigarettes and 1,000 pieces of Indonesian batik, were found inside a jongkong vessel when it was stopped for inspection at about 12.30pm. He said the skipper, however, escaped after jumping into the waters before fleeing into a nearby mangrove area.
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"Our team was patrolling the area when they saw and stopped the vessel which was heading towards here," he said. He said all the items had no permits to be brought into the district, adding that there was also no approval from the Health Ministry. He said the vessel and its load were brought to the maritime jetty for further investigations under the Customs Act 1967 and the Poison Act 1952. He urged those with information on such activities to contact MERS 999 or 089-750116.
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Meanwhile, in SANDAKAN, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency foiled an attempt by a skipper to smuggle nine people out of the district via the waters off Pulau Berhala, on Wednesday. All 10 people on board the boat comprising men, women and children, aged between two and 59, were detained in the 2.30pm operation when they were spotted in the boat which was heading towards Pulau Taganak in the Philippines.
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Maritime Director A Razak Abd Rahman said the boat, which was locally registered for the purpose of fishing, was stopped by a patrol team on "Operasi Pluto Timur" duty off the waters here. "The presence of small children and bag of clothes inside the boat leads us to believe that they were on their way to the their hometown in the Philippines," he said, adding that further inspections showed nine people had no documents and will be investigated under the Immigration Act 1959/63. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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