M'sia men jailed for bringing corals into S'pore without permit
Three Malaysian men were on Oct 14 each sentenced to five months jail for illegally importing marine creatures into Singapore without the required permits.
Khairul Ikmal Kamisan, 25, Wan Mohd Azizi Abdul Male, 20, and Dahlan Yahya, 43, were found guilty of trying to import 75 hard corals, 10 soft corals and two coco worms – all marine creatures sought after by aquarium hobbyists – into Singapore from Malaysia.
This was one of the largest seizures of smuggled corals to date, according to Singapore’s National Parks Board (NParks).
The illicit cargo was discovered by officers from Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on July 11, 2024, at about 3.30pm at the Tuas Checkpoint.
The three men were drivers employed by a logistics company based in Johor Bahru, tasked with making deliveries in Singapore. Khairul was the main driver, while the other two were alternates.
Their lorry contained various items listed in a cargo clearance permit for Singapore. Court documents did not specify the items.
But during the inspection of the vehicle, ICA officers found two undeclared white boxes concealed in another box inside the lorry’s cargo hold.
“The two white boxes were searched by the ICA officers and live corals in 29 individual plastic packets were found. The matter was then referred to NParks for further investigations,” noted the statement of facts.
Court documents showed that the men would take instructions from their supervisor, referred to as Abang Yus, and Mazman, the owner of the unnamed company, through text messages.
On July 11, the three men were told to deliver the goods in the vehicle to various recipients in Singapore.
They were given a copy of the cargo clearance permit, but did not conduct any checks to determine if the goods in the vehicle tallied with those listed in the permit.
In his text message, Abang Yus said the goods meant for a certain recipient – unnamed in the court documents – were in a white box “inside a box”. The recipient’s phone number was given, along with the word “corals” listed in brackets after the number.
Investigations later revealed that the men had previously made at least two other deliveries to the same recipient in Singapore.
South-east Asian waters are among the richest in marine biodiversity in the world. But marine life in the region is under threat from many human activities, including harvesting from the wild for the aquarium trade.
The 75 hard corals found in the smuggled cargo belonged to 11 species of hard corals listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), to which Singapore is a signatory, which protects endangered plants and animals from the threats of international trade.
The Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act regulates the trade in Singapore of animal and plant species that are listed under the Cites agreement.
“All hard or stony corals... require a permit to be issued before these corals can be imported in Singapore. (They) require a Cites import permit to be issued by the Director-General, Wildlife Trade and Control, prior to any importation into Singapore,” noted the court documents.
Though the 10 soft corals and two coco worms are not listed on Cites and hence do not require import permits under Singapore’s Endangered Species Act, they are defined as “animals” under a separate law, the Animals and Birds Act.
This means that importers require a licence issued by the Director-General, Animal Health and Welfare to import them into Singapore.
The three men did not have any of the requisite permits or licences to import any of the soft corals or worms.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now