Posted on October 14, 2024
The vessels and the crew, comprising two Indonesians and 24 Chinese nationals, were detained in Batam.
Two sand dredging vessels bearing the Malaysian flag have been detained by Indonesian authorities for illegal sand dredging near Nipah Island, Batam.The crew members, comprising two Indonesians and 24 Chinese nationals, were also arrested, CNN Indonesia reported.
The vessels were intercepted on Oct 9. Indonesian weekly Tempo reported that the two vessels, MV Yang Cheng 6 and MV Zhou Shu 9, displayed the flags of Malaysia, Singapore and Sierra Leone.
Indonesian authorities also found that the two vessels were extracting sand without proper documentation allegedly meant for reclamation purposes in Singapore. It is alleged that these two vessels had illegally dredged sand 10 times within a month.
Marine resources official Pung Nugroho Saksono said the vessels could produce 10,000 cubic tonnes of sea sand in a single nine-hour operation.
If they worked for a year, they could dredge 1.2 million cubic tonnes, resulting in state losses amounting to 223 billion rupiah (RM64 billion),he was quoted as saying.
