GEORGE TOWN: Two suspected drug smugglers turned swimmers when MMEA personnel intercepted their boat before seizing drugs worth RM10.53 million in the sea about three nautical miles southwest of Pulau Betong, on Thursday.
The MMEA team confiscated 240 kilogrammes (kg) of methamphetamine and 9.3 kg of ecstasy pills.
Penang MMEA director Abd Razak Mohamed said a MMEA boat patrolling the waters between Teluk Kumbar to Gertak Sanggul saw a suspicious-looking recreational boat at 7.30pm and ordered it to stop.
“But, the recreational boat sped off, and two Indonesian men on the boat resorted to several dangerous stunts in a bid to escape. We tried to intercept the boat and chased it for about 30 minutes.
“As the MMEA boat approached the recreational boat, the two men inside (the boat) threw various objects including suitcases into the sea before they also jumped off the boat, leaving the recreational boat to speed off by itself, in a bid to avoid arrest,” he told a press conference here yesterday.
He said upon inspecting the objects thrown into the sea they found eight black suitcases containing methamphetamine and one bag containing ecstasy pills.
Abd Razak said checks found 240 lumps of crystallised items, each weighing a kilogramme, packed in Chinese tea packets in eight suitcases and 9.3 kg of ecstasy pills of various colours believed to be brought in from Indonesia.
“All the drugs worth RM10.53 million are believed to be brought into Penang for local distribution. This is MMEA’s largest drug haul for this year so far,” he said.
He added they had managed to arrest the two men, in their 30s, who jumped off the boat wearing life jackets.
“Both men were rescued by fishermen in Pulau Betong and Sungai Pinang after floating at sea for more than 10 hours before being handed over to us for further investigation. They did not have any travel documents on them. We also seized the recreational boat worth RM150,000,” he said.
The two men have been remanded for 12 days to facilitate investigations under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act.
Abd Razak said they were still investigating where the recreational boat was registered and whether the drugs were brought to Penang directly or had been transferred in international waters because there was no registration number on the boat.
They were also tracking the drug trafficking syndicate network, he added. – Bernama
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