JOHOR BAHRU: Fresh from its record drug haul worth RM105.9 million, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in Johor thwarted another attempt to smuggle out about 100kg of drugs believed to be syabu worth RM5.1 million last night.
Two weeks ago, the MMEA scored its biggest drug haul in its 13 years of operations when it seized 2,118kg of methamphetamine.
MMEA deputy director-general (operations) Kamaruszaman Abu Hassan said the agency detected the activity through its intelligence team before setting up the raid in the waters near Tanjung Pelepas Port, Gelang Patah, near here.
“At about 9.30 pm yesterday, the MMEA patrol boat detected a suspicious fibre boat heading out of the Sungai Boh estuary in Gelang Patah to the waters of Tanjung Piai, Pontian, and believed to be heading towards the Malaysia-Indonesia (maritime) border.
“Realising the presence of the (patrol) boat, a man believed to be handling the fibre boat turned off the lights and sped off to the nearby mangrove swamp and fled into the mangrove forest, leaving behind the boat about 0.5 nautical miles southwest of the Tanjung Pelepas Port,” he said.
According to Kamaruszaman, members of the MMEA patrol boat then approached the fibre boat at about 9.45 pm, and checks found four suitcases and a box containing 98 Chinese tea packets containing crystal powder believed to be syabu.
Each packet was estimated to weigh one kg while the fibre boat with a 25-horsepower Yamaha engine estimated to be worth RM12,000.
Kamaruszaman said this was the sixth and largest syabu seizure by MMEA Johor this year, with the total seized to date worth about RM8.18 million.
“We believe the syabu drugs are being sent to third parties at the country’s maritime border to be marketed in a neighbouring country,” he said.
He added that MMEA was investigating whether the seizure last night was related to the RM10.53 million in methamphetamine and ecstasy seized in Penang on Dec 3, as the packaging used in both cases were very similar.