JOHOR BARU: The Johor Immigration Department has arrested two local men for trafficking 12 Indonesian nationals through the Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine Complex (CIQ) Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI), here.
Its director Baharuddin Tahir said that 10 of the Indonesian immigrants were previously blacklisted from entering the country and the two men acted as their transporters.
"Both transporters, aged 24 and 52, were arrested at 7.20am on Monday (Nov 7) at the vehicle entrance lane of the CIQ BSI.
"The 12 Indonesian nationals comprise nine men and three women aged between 20 and 40, with 10 of them previously barred from entering the country for various offences," he said during a press conference at the Setia Tropika Immigration Office here.
Initial investigations revealed that the 12 managed to pass through the border without Immigration stamps, and are believed to have been aided by the officers working at the counter, he added.
"They were earlier stopped for a routine luggage inspection by Customs. Inspection of their passports revealed they did not have arrival stamps and the department alerted us to their findings.
"We believe this is the modus operandi of a syndicate and we are not ruling out the possibility of the involvement of our own officers," he said, adding that the immigrants were brought in from Singapore in two vehicles.
Further investigations revealed that the Indonesians paid at least RM3,000 each to the syndicate.
"Investigations are still ongoing to track down the Immigration officers involved," he added.
Baharuddin added that all of the suspects are currently under remand for 14 days to help investigations under Section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Atipsom), which provides a jail term of up to 15 years, a fine, or both, on conviction.
It is also investigated under Section 55A (1) of the Immigration Act 1959/1963 for assisting illegal entry, which carries imprisonment for up to five years, a fine of not less than RM10,000, and not more than six strokes of the cane.
