Singapore’s Police Coast Guard (PCG), in a joint operation with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), has arrested 11 men for their suspected involvement in an illegal transaction of marine gas oil (MGO) at sea off Northern Tuas.
The 11 men include six crewmembers of a craft belonging to a marine service provider and another five crewmembers of a foreign-registered tugboat.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the crewmembers of the marine service provider’s craft are believed to have misappropriated the MGO and sold it to the crewmembers of the tugboat. The tugboat was seized for investigations.
The crews of the two boats will be charged in court with criminal breach of trust as servant and dishonestly receiving stolen property, facing imprisonment of between five years to 15 years and a fine.
“The PCG and MPA will continue to conduct enforcement and security checks to prevent, deter and detect such illicit activities in Singapore waters,” PCG said in a statement.
