Sarawak police intensify crackdown on fuel smuggling by targeting illegal depots along rivers and coastal areas to curb cross-border revenue leakage.
KUCHING: Sarawak police are intensifying efforts to curb cross-border fuel smuggling by targeting illegal depots across the state.
State deputy police commissioner DCP Saifullizan Ishak said instructions have been issued to locate these illegal bases, believed to be key smuggling routes along rivers and coastal areas.
“At present, our focus is to curb fuel smuggling out of the country, which benefits foreign parties,” he told reporters.
He stated that priority is being given to these cross-border activities due to their detrimental impact.
Monitoring operations will be intensified along Sarawak’s extensive river and coastal networks.
Saifullizan added that enforcement will be carried out in an integrated manner involving relevant agencies.
“Inter-agency cooperation is crucial to ensure efforts to combat this activity can be carried out more effectively,” he said.
The measures aim to strengthen security control and reduce revenue leakage caused by smuggling.
Separately, he provided statistics for Ops Selamat 26 conducted during the recent Hari Raya Aidilfitri period.
There was a reduction in overall road accidents during the six-day operation from March 19.
However, fatalities increased to eight compared to five previously, marking a 60% rise.
Fatal accidents remained at five cases for both periods.
“In terms of road users, the highest number of fatalities involved car users (62.5%), followed by motorcyclists (25%) and cyclists (12.5%),” he said.
A total of 14,723 summonses were issued for various traffic offences during the operation.
This represents an increase of 8,016 summonses, or 119.5%, compared to the previous operation.
Among the main causes of accidents were driver negligence, speeding, and loss of vehicle control.
Other contributing factors included head-on collisions and careless entry or exit at junctions.
