KUALA LUMPUR: A total of nine individuals, including five enforcement officers, have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling migrants into the country.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said two women were among enforcement personnel, aged between 30 and 41, who were arrested between 2.30pm and 8.40pm last Thursday in the joint National Registration Department Op Lancar sting in Sabah.
It said the other four individuals – three men and a woman aged between 37 and 43 – were believed to be agents for Indonesian workers.
They were arrested between 3.30pm and 6pm on the same day, MACC said in a statement yesterday.
According to the statement, the modus operandi of the syndicate was to charge illegal immigrants or those without valid documents about RM2,500 each for their passage to leave Sabah via Tawau Airport to the KL International Airport (KLIA) using someone else’s identity.
The migrants would be given boarding passes based on the names stated in the MyKad given to them.
Upon their arrival at KLIA, they would be met by enforcement officers who had been paid to let them through, thus enabling the migrants to pass through the immigration checkpoint without any problem, it said.
Based on MACC’s investigation, the syndicate, which is believed to have been operating since 2018, provided boarding passes to bring in between five and 20 illegal immigrants on each flight to KLIA. — Bernama
