A 46-year-old woman was arrested upon suspicion of being involved in the smuggling of ornamental plants near the Jeram Perdah 1 illegal jetty near Pasir Mas, at about 8pm yesterday.

General Operations Force (GOF) 9th Battalion commanding officer Nor Azizan Yusof said the woman was arrested while she was in the driver’s seat of a Ford Ranger pickup-truck with dozens of packages containing ornamental plants in the back.

He said a team from the GOF gathering intelligence at the border saw the four-wheel drive vehicle approach the illegal jetty along Sg Golok at about 7.30pm, before several men on a boat from a neighbouring country came by and transferred the plants into the vehicle.

“When members of the GOF tried to get close to the vehicle, all the men fled on the boat back to the neighbouring country,” he said in a statement today.

Nor Azizan said the plants, worth about RM102,900, were believed to be marketed in Kelantan as well as other areas.

He said the woman and the seized items were taken to the Jeram Perdah police station.

The case is being investigated under Section 11(1) of the Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Act 2011. – Bernama, January 17, 2021.