SEMENYIH: Police have arrested 11 men for misappropriating more than 94,000 litres of subsidised diesel worth about RM300,000.
Selangor police chief Comm Datuk Arjunaidi Mohamed said the suspects were part of a syndicate that bought subsidised diesel and sold it at a higher price to nearby industrial companies.
"Police from Selangor CID's Intelligence Unit (D4) and Bukit Aman Air Wing Drone Unit monitored the group's activities before raiding two warehouses along Jalan Semenyih on Thursday (Sept 1).
"We arrested seven local men, three Myanmar men and one Indonesian man aged between 19 and 59," he told reporters when met at one of the warehouses here on Monday (Sept 5).
He said investigations revealed the men worked as lorry drivers and general workers at these warehouses.
"We seized one pick-up truck and seven bonded lorries with modified tanks capable of carrying over 400 litres of diesel respectively.
"Also seized was a tanker truck carrying 25,000 litres of diesel, 46 plastic tanks containing 27,050 litres of diesel and three skid tanks containing 39,000 litres of diesel," he said, adding that in total 94,450 litres of subsidised diesel were seized from the two warehouses.
He said investigations revealed that these lorry drivers would go around and buy subsidised diesel from petrol stations and bring them back to the warehouses.
"The diesel would then be sold for between RM4 and RM5 per litre to industrial companies which could not buy subsidised diesel.
"Our investigations revealed that the syndicate was operating for at least three months prior to the raid," he said.
Comm Arjunaidi said the trucks were fitted with special high-capacity tanks and pumps.
"The 11 men were handed over to the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry for further action.
"They have been remanded for five days to help investigations under Section 21 of the Control of Supplies Act 1961," he said, adding that the total seizure was estimated to be worth RM1.5mil.
