KOTA KINABALU: Maritime officials detained six people and seized a tugboat as well as a tanker lorry during a pre-dawn operation in Tawau on Tuesday (April 9).
The suspects were believed to be involved in illegal fuel transfer in Tanjung Batu waters, Tawau district.
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Tawau zone director Shahrizan Raman said the crackdown, dubbed Ops Khas Pagar Laut, Ops Pluto Timur and Ops Tiris, was conducted following information from intelligence sources.
“We received information about illegal fuel transfer at the Tg Batu jetty at around 2.10am and moved in,” he said in a statement.
Maritime patrol units went to the scene and discovered the transfer being done from a tanker to the boat, he added.
Shahrizan said maritime officials raided both the tanker and vessel, and nabbed all six people at the scene.
“We arrested a Myanmar national, who is believed to be the captain of the boat, and four crewmen comprising two Indonesians, a Myanmar national and a local man.
"The tanker lorry driver, a local, was also nabbed,” he said.
The suspects, aged 32 to 57, were brought to the marine base for further investigation, while the boat and tanker lorry were confiscated.
Checks for documentation found that none of them had any papers to back up their activity, said Shahrizan.
The seized items and fuel were valued at around RM250,000, he added.
This case is being investigated under the Customs Act 1967, Control of Supplies Act 1961 and Petroleum Development Act 1974, he added.
Anyone who wishes to share information on suspicious marine activities in Tawau may do so by calling the Tawau operations centre at 089-750 116 or MERS 999.
