The Anti-Smuggling Unit (UPP) has seized a Proton Wira car which has been installed with additional tanks and used to transport smuggled fuel not far from the Thai border yesterday.
Padang Besar UPP commander ASP Noor Janihan Nanyan said the tanks had the capacity of up to 1,000 litres of fuel.
In a routine anti-smuggling patrol at about 5.10pm, enforcement officers chanced upon the heavily-tinted car at the Padang Besar industrial area and approached it.
However, the car sped off, with the officers in a patrol car in hot pursuit. The pursuing team caught up with the car in Kampung Melayu not far from the border shortly after.
Checks showed that the car’s road tax had expired and a huge tank had been installed in the backseat area and another in the car boot, he said.
A local man, aged 29, was detained in the operation.
Initial investigation showed that the man had been filling up the tanks with subsidised fuel from a petrol station in Kangar.
Meanwhile, in Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah, UPP officers detained four illegal immigrants from Burma who were attempting to enter the country in a car during an enforcement exercise at Kampung Padang Satu at about 2.30pm yesterday.
The team also arrested a local man who was the driver of the car in which the illegal immigrants were travelling.
“We have arrested a 35-year-old woman and her eight-year-old daughter, who were seated in the passenger seats. The woman’s two brothers, aged 23 and 25, were found hiding in the car boot,” he told a news conference.
Two foreign men who were also travelling with the group managed to flee into the woods nearby, he said, adding that the local driver, aged 24, admitted that he was paid between RM20 and RM50 per trip to transport immigrants into the country.
– Bernama
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