MMEA foils smuggling bid near Tanjung Gabang, seizes 4.8 million clove cigarettes

SEREMBAN: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has foiled an attempt to smuggle 4.8 million clove cigarettes of various brands into the country, says its acting director-general Rear Admiral (M) Datuk Saiful Lizan Ibrahim.

Saiful Lizan, who is MMEA deputy director-general (logistics), said his officers had also seized a six 200-horse powered-engine bot pancung (motorised boat) during the operation codenamed Ops Pagar Laut in Tanjung Gabang waters off Selangor around 10.20pm on Tuesday (April 11).

The seized cigarettes and boat were valued at some RM3.5mil.

"We swung into action following some surveillance work and upon detecting a suspicious looking contact entering a route which we call the Traffic Separation Scheme through our Maritime Sea Surveillance System or SWASLA radar.

"When the smugglers realised our presence, they sped off," he said.

Saiful Lizan said his men gave chase for about half-an-hour, forcing the smugglers to enter a mangrove area," he said.

However, when the MMEA team got closer to the boat near the Tanjung Gabang estuary, they discovered that it had been abandoned.

"The tekong or skipper and his workers managed to escape.

"The boat, powered by six Yamaha engines, did not have a registration number either," he said.

He said the cigarettes, believed to have been brought in from a neighbouring country, were to be sold illegally here.

The case, he said, would be investigated under the Customs Act 1967.

Saiful Lizan said the MMEA would continue to carry out patrols along the country's waters to check criminal activities at sea such as smuggling of contraband and controlled goods and the entry of illegal immigrants.

"In fact, we have been carrying out more patrols in the hotspot areas following the upcoming Hari Raya celebrations.

"We hope the public can also be our eyes and ears and provide us with information to help us combat cross-border criminal activities," he said, adding that they can call the MERS 999 hotline which operates throughout the day.

Separately, the MMEA said it had destroyed 249.3kg of methamphetamine and ecstasy pills seized during an operation in Pulau Betong in Penang in December 2020.

The drugs worth some RM10.5mil were incinerated at the Kualiti Alam integrated hazardous waste management centre here.

"The process was carried out in a controlled manner by complying with safety procedures to ensure it did not affect human and animal health or harm the environment," it said, adding that the MMEA had seized the drugs during Op Pertiwi.