Cops end illegal ewaste goldmine

PETALING JAYA: For five years, a factory the size of four football fields deep in an oil palm estate in Teluk Panglima Garang, Banting, had been turned into an illegal ewaste processing centre.

The clandestine factory, estimated to span over five acres, is believed to have raked in tens of millions of ringgit in profits processing tonnes of ewaste and extracting valuable metals such as uranium, gold, copper and lead since 2019.

Its operations were finally shorted out when federal police mounted a massive operation on Tuesday which led to the arrest of 50 people and the seizure of large heaps of ewaste.

The raiding party also recovered five tonnes of Telekom Malaysia telecommunication cables worth RM156,000 – believed to be stolen – in the 11am raid codenamed Ops Lusuh.

The raid came after four months of investigations and survelliance by the Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) Intelligence, Operations and Records Division (D4).

D4 principal assistant director SAC Datuk S. Shanmugamoorthy Chinniah said the factory was located deep in the plantation, about six kilometres from the nearest main road, and was operating illegally in the oil palm estate.

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He said a 38-year-old local man who was the manager of the factory was arrested along with 49 foreign workers comprising Bangladeshis, Myanmars, Nepalese and China nationals.

The foreigners, suspected to be illegals, have been handed over to the Immigration Department.

SAC Shanmugamoorthy said preliminary investigations showed that the ewaste activities had begun on a small scale on an acre of land before expanding.

The factory, he said, was found to have acquired tonnes of discarded telecommunication circuit boards and other scheduled waste to extract the valuable metals.

“We are trying to ascertain how this factory had managed to operate since 2019 without being detected and if the ewaste was sourced locally, overseas or both.

“We are also trying to determine who the factory owners are. We believe that profits raked in by the factory over the years could easily run into millions of ringgit,” he said.

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SAC Shanmugamoorthy said the Telekom Malaysia cables recovered at the premises had been seized and the factory would be investigated for “receiving and retaining stolen property” under Section 411 of the Penal Code.

He said the operation was jointly carried out with the Department of Environment (DOE), Immigration Department, Kuala Langat Municipal Council (MDKL), Tenaga Nasional and Telekom Malaysia.

The MDKL and DOE have issued summonses to the factory owners over the breach of local council laws such as operating without a license and for breaching provisions of the Environmental Quality Act 1974.

SAC Shanmugamoorthy urged the public to inform police if they come across such ewaste processing factories operating illegally.

On Feb 21, in a similar raid on a clandestine factory at Sungai Linggi, Seremban, an estimated 200 tonnes of ewaste, believed to have been shipped in from the United States and China via Port Klang, was seized at an unnumbered premises in a joint-agency operation.

Negri Sembilan climate change, human resources, entrepreneurship, cooperatives and consumerism committee chairman S. Veerapan said the entire operation was run illegally by Chinese nationals who had hired about 60 other foreigners.