KUCHING: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Sarawak will conduct Op Khas Pagar Laut throughout the Hari Raya festival beginning next week.
MMEA Sarawak director Maritime First Admiral Zin Azman Md Yunus said the trend of criminal activities in the country’s waters had the tendency to increase, especially during festival seasons.
Hence, the reason for the agency to be on high alert and to increase patrols, especially along Sarawak’s coastlines.
“The special operation is to prevent criminal activities by groups crossing our territorial waters. They might be thinking we will not be on duty due to the festival season.
“They would take this opportunity to conduct illegal activities such as smuggling and breaching our territorial waters,” he said in a briefing on Wednesday (April 27) at the Tun Abang Sallahudin Maritime Complex (KOMTAS).
Zin stressed that MMEA Sarawak personnel would be on standby and on duty for Hari Raya to ensure the state’s waters are safe from threats, especially for fishermen to conduct their fishing activities.
“I would also like to inform that seven vessels were detained in Bintulu and Kuching, with an estimated worth of RM14 million, including the boats.
“All the boats detained were from Vietnam together with 74 Vietnamese onboard. This was all thanks to the maritime community for tipping off the agency,” said Zin.
As of Wednesday, the agency had conducted inspections on 2,100 shipping vessels and detained 28 vessels for various offences.
“The maritime agency will increase its inspection frequencies, maintaining 70 per cent of its personnel on duty during Raya this year,” he said.
