SIBU: Logs and machinery worth about RM500,000 at two log ponds at Mile 22, Sibu-Bintulu Road here were seized during a joint operation by the 10th Battalion General Operations Force and Forest Department on Tuesday.
GOF personnel show the seized logs.
ASP Juvrinh Adrian Labungan who led the operation said they confiscated 150 logs of different species and sizes, an excavator and a tractor.
They also detained three men aged 53, 38 and 20 who were the excavator driver and timber workers.
Ten GOF personnel and officers joined by two enforcement officers from the Forest Department raided the log ponds at about 1.30pm acting on public tip-off, he said.
“We suspected the logs were illegally felled because they don’t have our department’s stamping.
“The workers at the site also failed to produce a timber licence. The offence is framed under Section 85 (1) of Sarawak Forest Ordinance,” he told a media conference in the GOF camp at Lanang Road here yesterday.
He said the illegal activity was believed to have been going on for a few months.
GOF handed over the seized items to the department yesterday.
On a similar matter, Juvrinh said they had made several seizures before and the highest confiscation value was about RM1 million.