SUNGAI PETANI: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called for a multiple agency investigation into how 336kg heroin, worth nearly RM790 million, was smuggled last month from Port Klang to Brisbane, Australia.
Anwar stressed that it would be a major embarrassment if it was confirmed that the heroin haul, the second biggest in Australian history, indeed originated from a Malaysian port.
"If it is true, it is embarrassing if it originated from Port Klang.
"How did it go undetected (by port authority)? How did the same smuggling effort happen for 12, 16 times undetected until it was uncovered by the Australian authorities?," Anwar said in his speech at a breaking of fast event organised by the Home Ministry here today.
Present were Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Johari Abdul and Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani.
Following the huge drug haul in Brisbane, Anwar said he has instructed the Customs Department to launch an investigation into how the drugs went past the port authorities undetected.
"I have asked the police's Criminal Investigation Department and Commercial Crime Department to assist the investigation.
"I hope to get the report within one or two weeks. We need to know what actually happened. We must not compromise and we will take stern action," he said.
Australia last month seized 336kg of heroin worth A$268.8 million (RM789.56 million) from a container sent from Malaysia to Brisbane, the second biggest shipment ever detected.
Australian Federal Police, in a statement last week, said the seizure was made by the Australian Border Force on March 13, when they found the drugs hidden in two blocks of concrete weighing 500kg each.
On Tuesday, Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that the ministry was identifying and investigating the port responsible for shipping the heroin to Brisbane.
Loke, describing it as a serious offence, also gave his assurance that the ministry will probe the port used by a cartel to ship the prohibited items.