BATU PAHAT: The owner of a transportation company and six others have been arrested for allegedly stealing 2,030 cartons of tinned sardines.
The items worth more than RM200,000, loaded into two 20-tonne lorries, were supposed to have been transported from Pasir Gudang port in Johor Baru to Rawang in Selangor. However, the two lorries were later reported “missing” by the two lorry drivers and their two assistants.
District police chief Asst Comm Din Ahmad said that the four claimed that the lorries parked along Jalan Bakau Chondong were missing when they returned from dinner at about 11.30pm on Wednesday, Jan 16.
He said police detained the four complainants the following day after finding their statements suspicious and arrested three others including the 28-year-old owner of the transportation company, believed to be the mastermind, and a 30-year-old Indonesian.
“A lorry with 916 cartons of tinned sardines was found at an empty piece of land in Lucky Garden in Tongkang Pechah at about 4pm last Saturday and we are tracing the other lorry and the remaining tinned sardines.
“The motive was to get the tinned sardines and sell them,” he told a press conference at the district police headquarters here Monday.
The suspects, aged between 28 and 38, are being remanded until Tuesday.
In an unrelated case, ACP Din said police arrested seven men, aged between 18 and 30, for robbing two Pakistani men at a house in Jalan Bukit Pasir.
Two men armed with a knife entered the house at about 4am on Jan 13 and took three mobile phones and RM16 in cash from them.
The two suspects were arrested with five others on the same day, he said, adding that police also recovered 17 mobile phones and RM190 in cash from them.
“We believed the RM190 was from selling the phones and we are investigating if they are also involved in other cases,” ACP Din added.
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