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BUKIT MERTAJAM – The Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry in Penang detained two men and confiscated a tanker containing subsidised fuel at a petrol station on Jalan Kulim here, yesterday.
Its director S. Jegan said the raid at 4.30pm was conducted following daily monitoring and inspections that found the 6.5-tonne tanker had been filling up with diesel fuel under suspicious circumstances.
“Ministry enforcers followed the tanker because the two men on the vehicle – a driver and the conductor – had filled it with diesel at several petrol stations around the Bukit Mertajam area here before we raided it.
“Inspections found that the tank at the back of the vehicle had a capacity of 10,800 litres while an 800-litre tank unit on the side of the lorry was used to fill diesel at the petrol station, and it had been modified to ensure that the oil could directly enter the tank at the back,” he said during a press conference here today.
He said preliminary checks found that the two men in their 20s and 30s were using a rented tanker to smuggle subsidised fuel. The inspection also found 1,800 litres of diesel in the two tanks.
He said the two men were believed to be working with a syndicate, and that they earned between RM200 to RM300 per day depending on the amount of fuel they managed to buy.
“At the time they were caught, the two men were believed to be heading towards a few more petrol stations to buy diesel because there was RM7,000 in cash with them.
The total value of the seizure is RM37,719, which involves the tanker, diesel, pumps, and walkie talkies,” he said, adding that the case was being investigated under the Control of Supply Act 1961.
According to Jegan, the Penang ministry chapter had seized diesel worth RM758,488 and arrested 25 individuals last year, almost four times the amount in 2021, namely RM136,788.
Meanwhile, in Ipoh, the Perak ministry chapter also seized a lorry with 7,600 litres of subsidised diesel and other equipment worth a total of RM102,640, following the arrest of two men aged 32 and 42 at a premises in Tungzen Industrial Park in Simpang Pulai, yesterday.
Its director Saifullizan Kamarul Zaman said the operation was conducted after officers traced activities related to the smuggling of subsidised diesel at petrol stations around Simpang Pulai and Gopeng for the past two weeks.
He said they managed to track down the lorry being refuelled in a suspicious manner for about an hour at a petrol station at 1.30pm yesterday, and inspections later led to the discovery of the oil collection premises, which was also believed to be running without a valid licence. – Bernama, January 5, 2023