Maritime Malaysia foils attempt to smuggle in cigarettes

LUMUT, June 11 (Bernama) -- The Perak Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has foiled an attempt to smuggle in various brands of cigarettes from a neighbouring country in an early morning operations today.

Perak Maritime director, Maritime Captain Wan Mat Wan Abdullah said in the Pagar Laut Op at 2 am today, the MMEA seized more than 66,000 packets of cigarettes estimated to be worth RM1 million at about 0.2 nautical miles from the mouth of Sungai Bernam, Hutan Melintang.

He said the cigarettes included 59,600 packets of kretek cigarettes of the Surya brand and 7,000 packets of Nusantara Hijau kretek cigarettes.

"All the cigarettes were seized from an unnumbered boat which appeared suspicious.

“However, as we were chasing the boat, four men whose nationalities were unknown, jumped into the sea, and efforts to find them failed,” he said in a press conference held at the Perak Maritime Headquarters here today.

Wan Mat said the MMEA seized the boat and three engines, and the total amount of the confiscated goods including the cigarettes was RM1.2 million, the biggest in Perak this year.

He said the success of the Op Pagar Laut was the result of continuous intelligence and monitoring work to curtail the smuggling of cigarettes meant for the Perak and Selangor market.

-- BERNAMA