SIBU: A public tip-off led to the seizure of 90 illegally-fell timber logs worth RM282,500 by an enforcement led by the 10th Battalion General Operations Force (GOF) here on Wednesday.
The other agencies involved in the operation included two officers each from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) and the Security and Enforcement Unit in the Chief Minister’s Office.
Commander of 10th Battalion GOF Supt Sanudin Mohamad Isa said that in the operation at 10am, the team was waiting to ambush on an illegal log pond at Jalan Narasit, which connects Sibu and Bintangor.
“The team waited for one hour when a man showed up. The man admitted to have been hired by his boss to look after the logs,” he added during a press conference here yesterday.
The 37-year-old was subsequently arrested and the timber logs of various species together with an excavator from the site were seized.
“We believe that the logs were from trees somewhere in the area and were kept in the temporary log pond. Once the logs were sold to buyers, the operator would abandon the log pond,” he said.
The case is being investigated under the Sarawak Forestry Ordinance 2015.
