KLUANG: Police have arrested eight men, including five foreigners, for apparently smelting copper illegally in Simpang Renggam near here.
General Operations Force (GOF) Battalion 5 commanding officer Supt Dimin Awang said the three locals, four Chinese nationals and one Bangladesh national, aged from 24 to 66 years old, were arrested at around 4.30am Sunday (May 30).
He said the suspects were in the midst of smelting copper in Jalan PTD1314, Kampung Ibrahim Majid in Simpang Renggam when they were found and subsequently arrested.
“Along with the arrests, we seized about RM3.5mil worth of items and equipment including 24 pallets stacked with mixed copper sheets, 41 large sacks filled with mixed copper, 67 large sacks of charcoal and 13 slabs of copper weighing 450kg each.
“We also seized various heavy machinery and equipment such as forklifts, generators, boilers and weighing scales from the location.
“With the arrests, we believe we have crippled an illegal copper smelting syndicate in the Simpang Renggam and Pontian areas, ” he said.
He added that the suspects and seized items were handed over to the Kluang police headquarters for investigation under Section 29(1) of the Minor Offences Act, Section 6 of the Secondhand Dealers Act Malaysia and Section 6 of Immigration Act.
