Suspected South African gun-runner held, seven Italian rifles seized in luxury yacht

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Ahmad (centre) with his deputy Datuk Zakaria Yusoff (second left) and others showing seven Italian-made rifles and various types of ammunition found on a luxury yacht. — Bernama photo

ALOR SETAR; The police have detained a South African man to facilitate investigations into international gun-running.

The suspect, in his 40s, was nabbed after a police team stumbled on seven Italian-made rifles and various types of ammunition during an inspection of a luxury yacht at the Kuah Jetty in Langkawi on Thursday.

Also picked up in the 12.30pm raid was a Thai woman, in her 30s, believed to be the man’s companion.

Initial police investigations revealed that the South African owned the vessel but did not have permit for possession of the Benelli Agro rifles and the ammunition.

Kedah police chief Datuk Ahmad Ibrahim said the privately-owned yacht was used by other yachts as a transit for storing the firearms.

“The suspects have been remanded until Wednesday to shed light on the seizure of the rifles and ammunition,” he told a media conference at the Kedah police contingent headquarters here yesterday.

Meanwhile that night, the police scored another success when they nabbed two men and seized ganja, heroin and Syabu weighing a total of 14.9kg near a shopping complex in Sungai Petani town.

Ahmad said a police team from the Kedah Narcotics Unit picked up the suspects from a parking lot while they were in the midst of selling the drugs at 8.45pm.

“We caught them red-handed in the process of selling the drugs. We checked their car and found ganja weighing 9.8kg, 15 packets of heroin (4.6kg) and two packets of Syabu weighing 0.5kg, all worth RM150,000,” he added. — Bernama

He said one of the suspects had eight criminal records involving drugs.The suspects have been remanded until Thursday to facilitate investigations. — Bernama