SHAH ALAM: A total of 41 foreign nationals and a local man were detained in two separate police raids in Sekinchan and Kampung Sekendi in Sabak Bernam.
Selangor Police Chief Comm Datuk Shazeli Kahar said the arrests were made by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as part of efforts to curb migrant smuggling under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (Atipsom).
“The first arrest was made at about 2am on Monday (March 2) when a multi-purpose vehicle was stopped under suspicious circumstances at a petrol station in Pasir Panjang, Sekinchan.
“Checks found that a local man was acting as a land transporter and ferrying nine passengers — six men and three women — all foreign nationals believed to have entered the country through an ungazetted route,” he said during a press conference at the Selangor police headquarters on Thursday (March 5).
He said the suspects were aged between 34 and 53.
The police also seized the vehicle, a set of car keys, two mobile phones of different brands, and an identity card.
Comm Shazeli said the second operation was carried out at about 3.30am on Thursday in a joint operation involving the CID D7 unit, the Bukit Aman Air Wing drone unit, the General Operations Force (PGA) Battalion 19 and the Sabak Bernam district police headquarters CID.
“After about six hours of surveillance, the team raided an oil palm plantation along Jalan Semenanjung Bernam 2 in Kampung Sekendi, Sabak Bernam.
“A total of 32 foreign nationals were detained while hiding in the plantation. They comprised 15 men, 14 women, a girl and two boys aged between one and 52,” he said.
No items were seized in the second raid.
Those believed to be acting as land transporters are being investigated under Section 26A of the Atipsom 2007, while the migrants are being investigated under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for not possessing valid travel documents.
Comm Shazeli said Selangor police would continue to intensify operations to safeguard the country’s borders from cross-border crimes.
