Authorities in a long fight with contraband runners
PETALING JAYA: Malaysian authorities have their hands full in combating smuggling rings.
Just last month, Sabah Customs officials seized 62 containers containing, among others, beer, cigarettes, rice and tyres worth more than RM42mil including tax.
The items comprised 853,776 litres of beer from 49 containers, 11 million sticks of cigarettes, 25,000kg of rice and 11,000 tyres.
The value of the contraband itself stands at RM5.24mil, while the tax is valued at RM37.14mil.
In August, police seized 450 sacks of smuggled rice worth RM45,000 after they stopped three lorries in Jalan Kampung Masjid Baru, Naka, in Alor Setar following a tip-off.
In September last year, drugs worth more than RM3.1mil and a pistol were seized from an Indonesia-registered vessel by the Penang Customs Department.
The drugs and pistol were found concealed in food packages hidden in the hull of the fishing boat.
Five Indonesian crewmen, aged between 30 and 54, were arrested.
The 22.067kg of drugs worth RM3,173,930 were hidden in seven cereal packets, a cereal box and some unlabelled packages.
A Norinco 9mm semi-auto gun, a magazine and 31 bullets were found in one of the 19 packets.
Ten of the packages had 10.747kg of methamphetamine and eight packets with 11.32kg of ecstasy.
Last month also saw several human-trafficking cases, with 16 rescued from a reflexology centre in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, after authorities received a tip-off.
The victims – 14 women and aone man from China and a Filipina – were rescued during a raid.
Most of the women were clad in tight-fitting uniforms when police found them inside a small makeshift room next to the counter.
In Kedah, police have rescued 10 Indonesian women, believed to be victims of a human-trafficking syndicate, during an operation at a house in Taman Intan near Sungai Petani.