MUAR: Marine police have detained three men and seized 65 pangolins and a tortoise during a raid at a house near Bukit Pasir here.
The men, including two orang asli, aged between 28 and 39, were believed to be members of a syndicate involved in smuggling exotic animals into the country.
Muar marine police base commanding officer Asst Supt Mohamad Pouzi Abdul Rauf said the pangolins were estimated to be worth more than RM72,000.
Major haul: ASP Mohamad Pouzi (second from right) looking at the tortoise which was seized during the raid in Bukit Pasir on Tuesday night.“We have been on the lookout for months for pangolin smuggling cases, usually from Indonesia. A team managed to trace the syndicate members,” he said.
The team, headed by Insp Mohd Naser Marzuke, spotted a car with two men behaving suspiciously and followed the vehicle to Bukit Pasir, he told reporters at the marine jetty here yesterday.
ASP Mohamad Pouzi said that when the car stopped at the house at 10pm on Tuesday, the team rushed in and found bags containing pangolins and a 41kg tortoise.
He said initial investigation showed that the house was being used as a trading point for smugglers to sell the animals to buyers who would take them out of Muar.
The three suspects would be charged with smuggling protected animals into the country he said, adding that the animals would be surrendered to the Muar Wildlife Department.
“We have made three pangolin seizures since September and we believe certain syndicates are using Muar as an entry point to bring in pangolins from Indonesia,” he said.