THE Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) foiled an attempt to smuggle in 4.27 million kretek (clove cigarettes) of various brands worth RM2.95 million in waters off Tanjung Sepat, Selangor, on Monday.

MMEA Malacca and Negri Sembilan director Iskandar Ishak said the smugglers using three speedboats, believed to be from Rupat, Indonesia, were detected thanks to intelligence from neighbouring countries and assistance from the Malaysian Maritime Surveillance System at about 11.30pm on Sunday.

He said the boats, which lacked registration numbers, were spotted moving suspiciously on the Traffic Separation Scheme route to Tanjung Sepat before they started fleeing upon realising the presence of MMEA assets in the area. 

“The MMEA boats chased the grey boats for almost 20 minutes until they entered a mangrove swamp area and purposely crashed into mangrove trees there.

“The MMEA boats successfully approached and intercepted the boats at a position 0.07 nautical miles southwest of Kampung Batu Laut in Tanjung Sepat at about 1.30am on Monday,” he said at a press conference in Alor Gajah today.

He said three skippers and the boats’ crew, believed to be foreign nationals, managed to escape by jumping into the sea before entering the nearby mangrove forest.

He said the high tide and dark and muddy conditions made it difficult for the MMEA team to locate them, but managed to confiscate about 400 large boxes of kretek boxes wrapped in plastic and placed in gunny sacks from the speedboats. 

Iskandar said preliminary investigations found that the contraband cigarettes were brought into the country due to high demand by the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor markets.

He said the incident might be related to a kretek cigarette smuggling syndicate that was busted in April. 

“Apart from the kretek, we also seized the boats along with six engines of 200 horsepower each, estimated to be worth RM3.15 million in total,” he said. – Bernama, May 17, 2023.