2 held in raid on illegal agarwood oil factory
KOTA TINGGI: The Peninsular Malaysia Forestry Department busted an illegal factory processing agarwood (known locally as gaharu) oil in Kampung Panti here on Friday.
In a raid from 9am to 8pm, enforcement personnel found a large-scale operation underway with the capacity to produce millions of ringgit worth of oil, run by a man, 65, and his son, 23.
“We were shocked to find 102 stoves that can extract agarwood oil,” said the department’s Forest Enforcement Division director, Mohd Rahim Ramli.
The raid on a house used to store raw agarwood for factory operations was witnessed by members of the media.
The sting, a collaboration between the department and police, involving 60 personnel, was conducted after a month of surveillance on the factory, which has been operational for more than 15 years.
The two men were handed over to police, while the factory and house will be impounded.
The raw agarwood, oil and appliances in the factory are estimated to be worth RM2 million, Rahim said, adding that his team would need time to grade the oil and investigate the two men under the National Forestry Act 1984 and other laws.
He said the suspects admitted that the oil was marketed to Singapore and the Middle East.
He said the agarwood tree, known by its scientific name Aquilaria Malaccensis, was an endangered species listed in the relevant schedule under the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008, and that its extract was highly valued in the cosmetics and perfume sectors.