IMMIGRATION DEPT BUSTS INDONESIAN MIGRANT SMUGGLING SYNDICATE

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 13 (Bernama) -- The Immigration Department busted an Indonesian migrant smuggling syndicate in a special operation held around Kajang, Selangor, on Monday.

The operation, which started at 6 pm, involved officers from the Intelligence and Special Operations Division of the Immigration Headquarters in Putrajaya.

Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban, in a statement today, said that based on public information and two weeks of intelligence gathering, the team was deployed to the location where they followed a suspicious vehicle.

“The team stopped the vehicle at a residential premises serving as rumah perkampungan (transit house) and arrested a 42-year-old Indonesian man known as Jon, suspected to be the transporter.

“Further checks on the premises resulted in the arrest of two Indonesian men, aged 20 and 41, suspected to be syndicate members responsible for guarding the house,” he said.

Also detained were 21 Indonesian men and five Indonesian women, aged between 21 and 50, bringing the total number of arrests to 29.

Zakaria said an initial investigation revealed that 13 of them had overstayed while the others did not possess valid travel documents or passes to remain in the country.

“The team seized 14 Indonesian passports, RM13,430 in cash and confiscated a Toyota Vios believed to have been used for transporting the illegal immigrants,” he said.

The syndicate’s modus operandi involved smuggling Indonesians through unregulated entry points, temporarily housing them in a transit house before transporting them to specific locations.

Zakaria added that the syndicate charged between RM1,500 and RM2,500 per person and had been operating for six months.

An Indonesian man was arrested on suspicion of committing an offence under Section 26J, while two others were detained under Section 26H of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.

“All Indonesian migrants were detained on suspicion of committing offences under Sections 6(3) and 15(4) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 and were taken to the Bukit Jalil Immigration Depot for further investigation,” he said.

-- BERNAMA