SEBERANG PERAI, Oct 28 — Police have arrested six individuals and seized various e-waste components and equipment worth RM22.35 million during a raid at a factory in Jalan Bukit Tambun in Juru yesterday.
Northern Brigade General Operations Force Commander SAC Shahrum Hashim said the Intelligence Branch of the 2nd Battalion General Operations Force (PGA) conducted surveillance of the site over the past few days before raiding the factory from 9am to 6pm under Op Hazard.
“Based on inspection of the factory, we found five forklifts, a waste filtration machine, 10 waste washing machines, an extruder machine, a compressor, and 250 jumbo bags of e-waste weighing an estimated 250,000 kilograms (kg),” he said in a statement today.
He added that authorities also seized 300 jumbo bags of dismantled electronic waste weighing about 150,000 kg, 10 piles of dismantled electronic waste weighing around 10,000 kg, 30 jumbo bags of processed electronic waste weighing about 24,000 kg, cash amounting to RM6,147, and a trailer truck containing 20,000 kg of dismantled electronic waste.
Police seized various e-waste components and equipment worth RM22.35 million during a raid at a factory in Jalan Bukit Tambun in Juru yesterday. — Picture courtesy of Northern Brigade General Operations Force
Among those arrested were a local man and five foreigners — two from China and three from Myanmar — all aged between 22 and 55 years old.
Shahrum said the operation was carried out jointly with the Penang Department of Environment (DoE), the Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Division, and the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) district police headquarters.
The six arrested individuals were handed over to the CID of the SPT district police headquarters, while the seized items were handed over to the Penang DoE for further investigation.
“The Northern Brigade of the General Operations Force will continue to intensify patrols and monitoring activities across Perak, Penang, Kedah, and Perlis to curb illegal e-waste processing activities,” he said.
He stressed that firm action would be taken against such activities.
The case is being investigated under Section 18(1A) of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
