MMEA detains three boats with 15 crewmen

LUMUT: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) detained three Class B local fishing boats with 15 crewmen and seized 600kg of fish near Sungai Belukang, Bagan Datuk.

Perak MMEA director, Maritime Captain Shahrizan Raman, said the three fishing boats were detained at 3am yesterday for violating licence conditions while fishing about 3.2 nautical miles from the Sungai Belukang estuary.

“There was one Malaysian and five Myanmar nationals on Boat PKFB 1792, while on boats SLFA 5031 and PKFB 1709, there were two Malaysians and four Myanmar nationals respectively.

“The catch in each boat was estimated to be 200kg. All the boats and the crew including the skipper, aged between 23 and 48 years, were later escorted to the Vessel Detention Centre for further investigations,” he said in a statement yesterday.

In a separate case, Shahrizan said the Kuala Kurau Maritime Zone patrol detained a fibreglass boat without a registration number with a local and two Myanmar nationals, aged between 28 and 30, for committing an offence under the Fisheries Act 1985.

He said the boat was detained by a Malaysian Maritime patrol boat about 5.5 nautical miles from Pulau Pasir Hitam at 4.30pm Saturday.

In Kota Baru, some 1,500 cartons of the Saat brand cigarettes worth RM450,000 including in unpaid tax, were seized by the 7th Battalion of the General Operations Force (PGA7) in a raid at an illegal jetty in Tanjung Baru, Pasir Mas, on Saturday. — Bernama