LAHAD DATU: An attempt to smuggle out controlled goods was foiled after the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Lahad Datu Zone confiscated 1,428 packets of 1kg subsidised cooking oil in an operation off Tanjung Batu waters on Saturday.
MMEA Lahad Datu director Komander Maritim Dzulfikhar Ali, stated that the seizure, based on intelligence, occurred around 6.00 am when a patrol boat detected a suspicious vessel just 0.2 nautical miles south of Tanjung Batu.
“Upon noticing the approaching MMEA boat, the suspects fled toward shore and abandoned the boat to escape,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Inspection of the vessel revealed 84 boxes of 1kg cooking oil packets concealed in black plastic bags. All confiscated items, including the boat, were transported to the FELDA Sahabat MMEA jetty for further action.
The total estimated seizure value, including the vessel, reached RM10,000.
Meanwhile, in Sandakan, a MMEA boat on patrol during Op Pluto Timur 2/2013 and Op Tiris 3.0 came across an abandoned boat in waters off Kampung Sunday at 5.45 pm on May 15.
Checks on the boat yielded 25 black plastic bundles containing 425 packets of 1 kg subsidised cooking oil. The boat was later towed to the MMEA Sandakan jetty, MMEA Sandakan director Kepten Maritim Muhamad Suhairy Hussain said on Saturday.
Muhamad Suhairy said, MMEA believed the items were bound for a neighbouring country.
Asia Times Pulse learnt the two cases were being probed under the Control of Supplies Act 1961. – James Leong
