Singapore’s Police Coast Guard (PCG) in a joint operation with the MPA Singapore arrested 11 men, ageing between 31 – 52, for their suspected involvement in an illegal transaction of marine gas oil (MGO) at sea off Northern Tuas.
Specifically, on October 30 2019, the two partners arrested six crewmembers of a craft, which belonged to a marine service providers and additional five crew members of a foreign-registered tugboat for illegal transaction of MGO at the sea off Northern Tuas.
According to investigations, the crew members of the craft took advantage of the MGO and sold it to the crew members of the foreign-registered tugboat.
Consequently, the authorities seized the tugboat for further investigations.
Additionally, the six seafarers of the craft will be charged with a criminal breach of trust as servant and the five tugboat workers will be charged in court with dishonestly receiving stolen property on November 1, 2019.
The PCG and MPA take a serious view of illegal transactions of marine fuel in Singapore waters. The PCG and MPA will continue to conduct enforcement and security checks to prevent, deter and detect such illicit activities in Singapore waters
… Singapore’s police force concluded.
It is not the first time that Singaporean authorities arrest men over illegal transactions; In early 2019, seven men got arrested for an alleged illegal transaction of 2.7 tonnes of marine gas oil at the sea off Pulau Sudong, Singapore. Similarly, Singapore’s Police Coast Guard (PCG) arrested eleven men aged between 22 and 44 for a suspected involvement in an illegal transaction of marine gas oil (MGO), on 19 February 2019.
