JOHOR BARU: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) is on the lookout for 12 Indonesians over the theft of RM4.86mil worth of diesel from a vessel in Johor waters.

       State MMEA director First Admiral Nurul Hizam Zakaria said the incident occurred on Oct 5 when the Cook Islands-registered ship was on its way from Singapore to Dili in Timor Leste.

       He added the suspects were working on the vessel as its crewmen prior to the incident.

       “At around 1pm, MMEA received a report about an attempted theft on the vessel, which was located at 23.6 nautical miles east of Tanjung Siang waters near Kota Tinggi.

       “MMEA deployed a team at the location where we found that the ship had been left without crew, and diesel worth RM4.86mil was believed to have been stolen,” he said in a statement here on Tuesday (Dec 21).

       Nurul Hizam said the agency received a red notice from the International Police (Interpol), which was published on Thursday (Dec 16) about the suspects.

       He added the MMEA is looking for Haryadi Tri Tomi with passport number B9706316, Mangalik Despiandri (C7309394), Nordiansyah Muhammat (C1366351), Pasaribu Suherri Nanda (C2081744), Pinem Jendri (C6787829) and Prasetyo Agung (C7021189).

       Nurul Hizam said the others were Saputra Pandu Prasetya (C7573439), Siddiq Muhammad (C7309737), Silaban Rusman (B5670491), Syahputra Haloho Maraek (C7307752), Tarigan Harry Pranata (C7308182) and Yusran (C3899964).

       He added they were needed to assist with the investigations under Section 380 of the Penal Code and Section 34 of the same Act (Act 574).

       He urged those with information to contact the agency’s Maritime Criminal Investigation Division at 03-8995 7935 or the Johor MMEA Maritime Crime Investigation Division at 07-891 6595.