Bernama New Straits Times 17 Jan 19;
KUCHING: Soldiers yesterday foiled an attempt to smuggle 310 magpies to Indonesia via a 'lorong tikus' (illegal route) near the Malaysia-Indonesia border in Tebedu, about 100 km from here.
The First Infantry Division command said in a statement that the soldiers spotted three men with bird cages at the trail at about 4 am while engaged in the SERKAP Operation near the Tebedu Inland Port and Tebedu Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security Complex.
“The soldiers ordered the men to stop for an inspection of the goods they were carrying. The men abandoned their goods and fled into the jungle,” it said.
The goods turned out to be 13 bird cages containing 310 magpies estimated to be worth RM248,000, it added.
The birds and the cages were brought to the Tebedu police station and handed over to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation. -- BERNAMA
