MEAT CARTEL : CUSTOM DEPT TO LAUNCH PROBE

KUALA LUMPUR: The Customs Department will launch an internal investigation following the recent meat cartel expose in the New Straits Times.  Its director general, Datuk Abdul Latif Abdul Kadir, said the probe will be carried out through the Internal Investigation and Integrity Unit. The investigation will detect any rogue Customs officers abetting the meat cartel syndicates to smuggle non-certified meat into Malaysia. "No compromise. Our Customs personnel are always reminded to stay away from corruption. "Stern action will be taken against anyone involved," he said in a text message today. Following the expose, he said the existing standard operating procedures (SOP) will be improved to cover any flaws. "This effort is continuous," he added. The NST front-paged today a report on senior officers from four government agencies working with a cartel specialising in bringing non-certified meat into Malaysia and passing it off as halal-certified products. The officers reportedly received money, and in some cases even women for sex, as bribes to turn a blind eye to the cartel's operations and ensure its activities go undetected. The cartel has reportedly been operating for over 40 years and imported meat from non-halal-certified slaughterhouses in a few countries, such as Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Spain and Mexico. The meat, smuggled out of the port, would be taken to warehouses where it would be mixed with halal-certified meat and repacked with fake halal logos, then sold in the market.

KUALA LUMPUR: The cartel responsible for importing meat and passing it off as halal in Malaysia is believed to have used proxy companies as the conduit for their products into the country. It is understood that the cartel has between six and 12 proxy companies set up for this purpose, using Bumiputera individuals as company directors. Sources told the New Straits Times that this method ensured that the heads of the cartel were sufficiently distanced from the operations, thus making it difficult for the authorities to establish a direct link between the activities and the individuals. The cartel also uses Malay- and Islamic-sounding names for the companies to lend an air of legitimacy to their operations and assure the market of their products' supposed halal status. However, even more shocking is that the Bumiputera directors are unaware that their identities have been used to set up these proxy companies. The NST spoke to one of the companies' directors who claimed he was in the dark over his directorship of a company until recently. The man, who wished to be known only as Zam, said he first got wind of something unusual when his zakat aid stopped suddenly this year. Zam, who is self-employed, lives with his family in a squatter house. He said the only possession he had to his name was an old motorcycle.  "Now I understand why I was told that I am no longer eligible for monthly aid. I was supposed to also get aid for school uniforms for my kids," he said when met at his house recently.  Zam was dumbfounded upon being told that he was the director of a company that raked in hundreds of thousands of ringgit a month. The company his name is attached to has a paid-up capital of RM250,000. "Many years ago, I borrowed money from a loan shark. "To do that, I had to hand over copies of my documents, such as my MyKad. "I believe this is how these people obtained my particulars." Zam said he was now afraid of repercussions following his inadvertent involvement in the cartel's activities. He said he hoped the authorities would launch an investigation and clear his name so that he would not be saddled with debt and tax responsibilities. Meanwhile, a source told the NST that the proxy companies have paid-up capitals of between RM200,000 and RM300,000. The source confirmed that the cartel obtained information and data of Bumiputera individuals through middlemen and registers them with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) as company directors. The source said CCM's less than stringent procedures, which allow companies to be registered with only a copy of an individual's MyKad, made it easier for the cartel to create these proxy companies. "This manipulation of documents and data has enabled them to create legitimate companies to carry out their activities." The source said the only connection between the proxies and the cartel was the secretary, who is an ever-present figure in all the registered companies. Checks with the addresses listed for some of the companies led to a dead end, with some premises being non-existent.

Source NST: By Mohamed Basyir - December 21, 2020 @ 9:25am.

Thanks...

By,

M Anim

Malaysia.

December 2020.