KUCHING: The army successfully foiled two land agents’ attempts to smuggle undocumented foreigners in and out of Sarawak yesterday.
The First Infantry Division said the incident happened at the Ensawang oil palm plantation, Lubok Antu, about 300m from the Malaysia-Indonesia border.
An army team spotted a motorcycle behaving in a suspicious manner at about 8.30pm that day and is believed to be scouting the area.
Suspecting that a cross-border criminal activity was being planned, the team stayed prepared and continued to monitor the area closely.
“Later at 11.15pm, the team saw a sport utility vehicle (SUV) passing through the area. They stopped the vehicle and found 10 Indonesians and two Malaysians inside the vehicle.
“Interrogations found six of the Indonesians wanted to return to Indonesia while four others wanted to enter Malaysia illegally. It is believed that the two Malaysians are land agents, who are responsible for transporting all of them.
“The team also seized 18 mobile phones, 47 cigarette boxes, 53 Milo packs, a gold chain, three gold rings, walkie talkies, snacks, medicines and makeup, suitcases, RM4,746.65, 68,341 rupiah (RM12.71), a samurai sword and the vehicle. All are worth RM87,674.36,” said a military spokesperson.
All those arrested were then taken to the Lubuk Antu police station and given swab tests by the Health Ministry (MoH).
On the same night in Tebedu behind Puspa Indah Restaurant, about 1.4km from the border, an army patrol team detected five Indonesians walking towards the border.
The team then detained the group who admitted they came from Entikong via a rat trail (jalan tikus) and were heading to Miri for work purposes.
The Indonesians, who did not have any identification documents, were deported to their country.
Lately, cross-border crime cases in Sarawak–West Kalimantan have been on the rise.
