MMEA stops passenger boat carrying controlled goods off Tawau

The suspects flanked by MMEA personnel with the seized items.

KOTA KINABALU: A passenger boat was caught transporting essential items instead of people in Sabah’s east coast Tawau district waters.

The ruse was discovered by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) during a routine check at about 8.30pm on Thursday (Feb 1).

Tawau MMEA director Capt Shahrizan Raman said a patrol vessel spotted the boat, believed to be heading to Sebatik Island in Tawau, some 1.7 nautical miles south-west of Sungai Logpond.

“Upon inspection, we found the vessel was registered as a passenger boat but was used to transport goods instead,” he said in a statement on Friday (Feb 2).

He said the boat was operated by a local man and an Indonesian, both aged 67.

“They were transporting 29 boxes containing 493kg of cooking oil and 20 packets containing 480kg of sugar.

“They were unable to produce any permit allowing them to transport the items,” he said.

Capt Shahrizan said they then escorted the boat to the Tawau MMEA jetty where the suspects were detained.

He said the case was being investigated under the Ports and Harbours Enactment 2002 for misuse of licence as well as the Customs Act 1967 for illegally transporting controlled goods.

The total value of the seized items and boat was estimated at RM30,000.

Capt Shahrizan urged the public to report any criminal activity or incident at sea to the Tawau MMEA operations room at 089-752115 or the Malaysian Emergency Response Services (MERS) 999 number.