MALACCA: Four men, including two Indonesian nationals, were arrested for attempting to smuggle about 1,500 Oriental magpie-robins, worth RM300,000, out of the country about 1.9 nautical miles southwest of Pulau Besar early today.
Malaccaa and Negri Sembilan Maritime director Captain Haris Fadzillah Abdullah said the arrest of the four suspects, aged between 33 and 55, was made after a maritime patrol boat saw two suspicious looking boats in the area and approached them.
“Checks conducted on the two boats, which do not have registration numbers, found baskets containing 1,500 birds,” he said in a statement today.
He said the birds were believed to be smuggled to a neighbouring because of its high demand there.
On the Indonesian nationals, he said, both of them did not possess valid identification and travel documents.
Haris Fadzillah said enforcement operations in the waters off Malacca and Negri Sembilan would continue to be stepped up to combat cross-border criminal activities and urged those with information on such activities to contact the Maritime Operations Center, which operates round the clock, at 06-3876730 or 999. — Bernama
