21/04/2009 (The Daily Express), Kota Kinabalu - About RM9 million worth of palm oil was siphoned away while on transit from the processing plants to the ports in the East Coast of Sabah last year.

A majority of the palm oil supplies weighing up to thousands of metric tonnes, after being loaded onto lorries at the factories, never reached their destinations. As for those that did, the contents did not add up.

This has led police to believe the thefts were orchestrated by insiders, with 75 people comprising lorry drivers and security staff, among others, arrested in connection with the 163 cases of palm oil thefts reported in 2008.

"The number of cases is quite serious É there is a syndicate behind this (and) this cannot happen without inside help," Sabah Commissioner of Police, Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim said, adding police have only managed to solve 39 cases thus far.

"These are secured areas and how can such thefts occur and go unnoticed?

"The supplies either end up missing, with the lorries never arriving at the ports, for example, when they are enroute from Lahad Datu to Tawau, or when they (lorries) eventually do and transfer the oil to the tankers it will not be enough," he said.

He said police believe there was a more sinister scheme behind the whole episode, pointing out the thefts had been meticulously planned and involved illegal immigrants.

"Many of the lorry tankers that did not reach the ports were found abandoned by the roadside and empty, with the drivers also missing.

"But when we tried to trace the drivers we found that they did not have any identification document, and that some had only been here for two or three months É it is as though they were employed to carry out the thefts and slip out (of the country)," Noor Rashid said.

He said the thefts were so audacious that the quantity of palm oil going missing was just too much to believe, adding police did not rule out some might have been smuggled out of the country.

"One of the cases alone involved about 40 metric tonnes and in another, 29 metric tonnes was siphoned É on average each of the cases involved thefts of between 20 and 30 metric tonnes of palm oil," he said, adding a metric tonne was worth about RM3,000.

Lahad Datu led the list with 42 thefts of palm oil reported last year, followed by Tawau (41), Beluran (15), Sandakan (14), Kunak (11) and a few in Kota Marudu, among others.

Towards this end, Noor Rashid stressed police were eyeing the companies that transported the palm oil and were suspected of stealing them, but declined to elaborate further.

"Those involved in the transportation of the palm oil be careful É I remind these operators to only hire foreigners with documentation.

"I am going to take stern action (and) I have directed my traffic boys to regularly check drivers of such lorry tankers," he said, adding police will also work closely with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board on the matter.

Meanwhile, another crime that concerned police involved the thefts or robberies of fertiliser from storehouses, he said.

Noor Rashid reminded those caught having or buying the items would be arrested under Section 411 or 414 of the Penal Code for dishonestly receiving stolen property and assisting in concealment of stolen property, respectively.