KUALA LUMPUR: A freighter was seized with its 13 foreign crew arrested as police busted a big smuggling syndicate for subsidised diesel at Johor Port in Pasir Gudang last Thursday.

Bukit Aman Department Internal Security and Public Order Department director Datuk Seri Hazani Ghazali (pix) said the raid carried out together with the Marine Intelligence Unit and Marine Police Force Region Two succeeded in seizing 138,270 litres of subsidised diesel.

Besides locking down the oil cargo ship, he said the arrests included three local men and confiscation of an oil tanker truck, two flow meters, two oil pumps, with a total value of estimated at RM20.6 million.

“PDRM is always committed to working with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living in fighting the leakage of controlled and subsidised goods to ensure that the country’s revenue is always intact,” he said in a statement today.

Hazani said the case will be investigated under Section 21 of the Control of Supplies Regulations 1974 and Section 6 (1) (c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.-Bernama