KUDAT ZONE MMEA DETAINS PUMP BOAT SUSPECTED OF SMUGGLING 5,000 LITRES OF PETROL OUT OF MALAYSIA

KOTA KINABALU, Nov 11 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) managed to foil an attempt to smuggle petrol to the Philippines when they detained a pump boat with a load of petrol around 0.01 nautical miles east of Karamunting, Pitas at 11.50 pm Saturday.

MMEA Kudat Zone director Cmdr (maritime) Maurice Grenville Abeyeratne said the boat was detained by a MMEA team on patrol and 5,000 litres of petrol without any valid permit were found onboard upon inspection, leading to the arrest of two crew members, a local man, 35, and a Filipino, in his 30s, who did not possess any identification documents.

"When the MMEA team arrived at the scene, they detected two pump boats moving in the dark and when they approached them the boats sped off to shallow waters in hopes of evading the team.

“One boat, which was found hiding, was quickly detained and inspected,” he said in a statement here today, adding that the total value of seizures was estimated to be over RM10,000, and the suspects and seized items were handed over to the Kudat maritime zone investigating officer for further investigation under the Control of Supplies Act 1961 and the Immigration Act 1959/63.

In a separate incident, Maurice said the Kudat Zone MMEA also detained a trawler in Kudat waters suspected of violating the Fisheries Act 1985 for trawling less than three nautical miles from the shore.

-- BERNAMA