The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) seized two ships suspected of illegal transfer of oil and another for docking without valid documents in the waters off Pengerang yesterday.
“The two vessels were detained when the MT Vitalogy, which was registered in Equatorial Guinea, was in the midst of transferring 80,000 litres of marine oil to the Vietnamese-registered MT An Phu without documentation,” an MMEA spokesperson said.
A total of 16 crew – a mix of Indonesians and Vietnamese – were arrested from both vessels.
The MMEA has been trying to crack down on oil smuggling this year in a bid to quash rising robberies at sea which has made Southeast Asia a blackspot for maritime crime over the past 18 months.
