JASIN: A bid by two brothers to flee with around two tonnes of suspected stolen oil palm fruit was foiled after police detained them at an oil palm plantation in Batu 21, Bukit Katong Rim, on Friday (July 31) night.
Jasin OCPD Supt Lee Robert said the two suspects, aged 22 and 24 years old, were detained at around 12.30am Saturday (Aug 1) after spending over five hours in the oil palm estate cutting and loading oil palm fruits into an lorry.
He said police received a report about the incident at 11.24pm Friday from the plantation's 58-year-old manager.
"The manager was alerted by his workers that two unknown individuals had entered the plantation without authorisation, driving a lorry, at around 7.45pm Friday.
"The workers monitored the situation from a distance and found that the two suspects were allegedly stealing oil palm fruit from the approximately 8.09ha plantation and loading it into their lorry," he said in a statement Saturday.
He said police monitoring at the scene found suspected unauthorised harvesting of oil palm fruit before officers carried out a raid to detain the two suspects, confiscated the lorry believed to have been used to transport the stolen oil palm fruit, as well as two loading spikes and a sickle.
Lee said investigations found that the vehicle was registered to a company, and the company's owner was among the suspects involved in the case.
He said both suspects tested negative for drugs in urine screenings and have been remanded for three days starting Saturday to assist with further investigations under Section 379 of the Penal Code for stealing.
"Investigations are ongoing to identify any other individuals suspected of being involved in the theft," he said. - Bernama
