KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — Police arrested 13 individuals in 13 raids on suspicion of being involved in smuggling of contraband, fireworks and bitcoin mining around the Klang Valley in ‘Op Kontraban’ starting April 5 with the seizures worth almost RM10.1 million.
Those detained in the 10-day operation comprised 11 local men and two foreigners aged between 20 and 50 by the Special Intelligence and Investigation Branch and the Special Operations Force.
Bukit Aman Department of Internal Security and Public Order director Datuk Seri Hazani Ghazali said in the first raid on April 5, police arrested a local man with 1,079 cartons of various types of cigarettes worth RM318,634.40 and a vehicle in Kajang, Selangor.
Following the raid, PDRM launched a second raid at the same location by seizing 2,800 cartons of cigarettes of various types estimated to be worth RM1.1 million, making the total seizure of both raids estimated at RM1.5 million.
“The third raid was carried out in Klang and the police arrested a local man and seized 264 boxes of various types of firecrackers estimated to be worth RM800,000 and the case is being investigated under Section 8 of the Explosives Act 1957,” he said in a statement today.
He said in the fourth raid on April 13, an industrial premises around the Klang Valley was detected carrying out cigarette manufacturing and packaging activities that were found not to have customs approval.
“Police arrested two local men who were responsible for the premises and seized a total of 15,600 cartons of cigarettes of various types estimated to be worth RM 6.2 million.
“The premises was found to have abused the existing approval by packing and distributing cigarettes without Customs approval,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hazani said the police continued operations to curb bitcoin mining activities and in collaboration with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) launched an operation to curb theft and illegal electrical connections.
He said in the operation, nine premises were raided and police seized 515 units of bitcoin machines estimated to be worth more than RM1.5 million and detained seven local men along with two foreign men.
“The special operation managed to curb losses amounting to 374,353.10 kwh per month with a value of RM190,545.70 per month to TNB,” he said.
In a separate development, Hazani said based on the results statistics from January to April 15, the police launched 35 raids and arrested 51 individuals while the total value of the seizures amounted to RM38 million.
