SERIKIN: An attempt by two men to smuggle a stolen four-wheel drive vehicle out of the country failed when the Mitsubishi Pajero got stuck in a muddy road at an oil palm plantation, near the Sarawak-West Kalimantan border here yesterday.
A team of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division who were on patrol at the area near Kampung Serikin when they spotted the suspects believed to be from Indonesia desperately trying to push the stuck silver-coloured vehicle off the muddy road in the 10am incident.
When the soldiers approached them, the suspects abandoned the vegucle and immediately fled the scene on foot, crossing the international border to make good their escape
The division spokesman said the patrolling team retrieved several items including an Indonesian passport upon checking the vehicle abandoned at the scene.
“Preliminary checks showed the vehicle was reported stolen in Taman BDC, Stampin in Kuching on the same day,” the spokesman said, adding that the case have been handed over to the Bau district police station.
The spokesman also did not rule that the two suspects might be a part of a syndicate stealing vehicles in the state and then smuggling it out of the country to be sold in the black market in Indonesia.