MMEA foils suspected bid to conceal illegal logs
KUCHING: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency ( MMEA) foiled a suspected attempt to conceal illegally felled logs among a cargo of validly felled ones after detaining a barge at Tanjung Po on Tuesday.
District MMEA deputy director for operations Shahref Steve Mac Queen Abdullah said the barge was detained about two nautical miles east of Tanjung Po during a routine patrol by a Mmea vessel at 3.17pm.
“An inspection found the barge without a port clearance letter indicating its cargo, and suspected of breaching the Sarawak Forests Ordinance since part of the logs did not have special markings from the Forest Department,” he said during a press conference held at the MMEA complex in Muara Tebas yesterday.
Shahref added that the barge and its cargo of 1,350 logs were seized by Mmea with its nine local crew detained. The case was handed over to the Forest Department for investigation.
He called on all logging operators to adhere to and understand all existing laws since logging was a ‘ very sensitive’ matter in Sarawak.
Meanwhile, state Forest Department assistant director for Prevention and Enforcement Division Abdul Wahab Ahmad said an initial probe found that the logs - described as ‘sawn timber’ in its documentation - originated from Lingga and were destined for Kuching.
“One of our suspicions is that some of the unmarked logs were deliberately placed with the validly felled ones to conceal them from authorities. Another possibility is that it is an attempt to evade or reduce royalty payments as some of the logs were not correctly stated in the documents: smaller ones declared larger and larger ones declared smaller,” he said.
He disclosed that the department had collected about RM119,000 in royalties from the seized consignment, but were checking on the discrepancy in documents to ascertain the amount of royalty payments due.