Marine police foil bid to smuggle out 75 illegal immigrants

0

JOHOR BAHARU: The Region 2 Marine Police crippled a syndicate’s attempt to smuggle out 75 Indonesian illegal immigrants, after two separate raids in Kota Tinggi yesterday.

Region 2 Marine Police Commander ACP Zainul Abidin Hassan said 40 of them were detained at the Bukit Raja Darat jungle in Sungai Rengit at 12.15am while another 35 were detained after a high speed boat chase at Pantai Pasir Gogok about 3.30am.

The skipper of the boat and his accomplice jumped into the sea and managed to escape from the police after trying to ram their boat against the Marine Police vessel.

In the first raid, 36 men and four women who did not have any valid travel documents were detained while the 29 men and six women detained in the second raid were also found to be travelling without any travel documents.

“In the first six months, the Region 2 Marine Police detained 561 illegal immigrants who had attempted to enter or exit Malaysia,” he said in a statement here yesterday. — Bernama