JOHOR BARU: Four vessels have been impounded by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in eastern Johor waters for illegally transferring fuel and illegal anchoring.
Johor MMEA director First Admiral Nurul Hizam Zakaria said that two of the vessels were impounded between 10.50am and 11.30am on Monday (Jan 9).
"The two tankers were impounded about 32 nautical miles east of Tanjung Sedili for illegally transferring fuel.
"One of the tankers was registered in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia and had 10 crewmen onboard. They are from Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.
"Meanwhile, the other one was a Panama-registered tanker with 18 crewmen from India and Pakistan," he said.
He said that some 7,000 metric tonnes of Marine Fuel Oil (MFO) worth RM24.5mil were also seized for further investigations.
Nurul Hizam said this in a press conference at the Johor MMEA headquarters here on Tuesday (Jan 10).
He said that the two other vessels were also impounded on the same day for illegally anchoring in Johor waters.
"The third vessel was detained at about 11.40am on Monday (Jan 9) about 11.9 nautical miles east of Tanjung Siang. There were 22 crewmen on the Australia-registered vessel who are all from the Philippines.
"Meanwhile, the fourth vessel was found illegally anchoring at about 12 nautical miles east of Tanjung Balau. The Zanzibar-registered vessel had five Indonesian crewmen on onboard," he said.
He noted that all of the vessels had been seized while their ship captains had been brought to the Tanjung Sendili maritime zone for further investigations.
Nurul Hizam said the cases are being investigated under Section 491B (1)(K) for illegally transferring fuel from ship to ship and under Section 491B (1)(L) for anchoring illegally.
