Illegal transport: Comm Kamarul Zaman inspecting the modified fuel pumps that were installed in a delivery truck, believed to be used by a syndicate to misappropriate subsidised diesel.
JOHOR BARU: The delivery trucks go from one petrol station to another to fill up. The two to six modified fuel drums they carry can each take 1,000 litres of diesel.
Once both are full, the delivery trucks go to a secluded area where a tanker lorry awaits. The fuel is transferred and the RM2.15 per litre diesel now in the tankers is sold to ships and factories at fat profits.
Syndicates that are buying subsidised goods only to sell them at regular prices are getting more creative.
In a raid on July 21, police uncovered an illegal subsidised diesel ring and arrested five locals and a foreigner at a warehouse in Seri Alam.
About 77,000 litres of diesel, nine lorries, two tanker lorries, four fuel drums and six fuel pumps were seized.
The suspects were among 25 men, including nine foreigners, arrested in 14 raids from July 20 to July 25 under Ops Kontraband conducted statewide. Close to RM2mil worth of contraband, including cigarettes and alcohol, was seized.
State police chief Comm Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat said the syndicate had been using delivery trucks equipped with modified fuel drums as they would not attract as much attention as huge tankers lorries.
He said a 28-year-old lorry driver was also arrested in Endau, Mersing, on July 20 after he was suspected of transferring cooking oil from 1kg plastic bags into bottles that are priced higher in the market.
The suspect was believed to have carried boxes filled with bags of cooking oil in a delivery lorry to a storehouse. Police found 4,012 plastic bags of cooking oil worth a total of RM10,030.
“The bags, priced at RM2.50 each, were actually meant to be sold in sundry shops in rural areas for the B40 community in Mersing.
“The suspect repacked the oil into bottles of different sizes and then sold them at sundry shops, starting at RM11,” Comm Kamarul Zaman said at the Seri Alam police headquarters here yesterday.
He said police were looking for others involved in the illegal activity and to locate the source of the suspect’s supply.
They would also investigate the sundry shops that were suppose to receive the cooking oil, he added.
