2 S’poreans among gang arrested in marine oil theft
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SINGAPORE – Two Singaporeans are among another 11 men who were arrested by the Police Coast Guard (PCG) for their suspected involvement in a marine oil heist.
In a media release on Friday (Feb 9), the police said the gang – aged between 21 and 40 – were arrested on Thursday and Friday for allegedly misappropriating Marine Gas Oil (MGO) "without the company's knowledge and selling it to a foreign-registered tugboat".
The 11 men will be charged in court on Saturday under the Criminal Breach of Trust offence. If convicted, they can be jailed up to 15 years and fined.
The police said that PCG had learnt of this latest gang of 11 after they had conducted follow-up investigations into an earlier group that consisted of 11 Indonesians.
The Indonesians were caught after the PCG received information on Jan 19 that an unknown foreign-registered vessel was believed to be involved in an illegal sale of 200 metric tons of MGO.
The fuel has an estimated market value of S$97,000.
The Indonesians were charged in court on Wednesday for a similar offence.
This is the second case of fuel heist in just over a month.
On Jan 8, 17 people were arrested for their suspected involvement in a multi-million dollar fuel heist from Shell Singapore's plant in Palau Bukom. Of the arrested, 11 were charged in court.
According to court documents, among the accused are eight Singaporeans who were employees of Shell when the crime was allegedly committed.
There is another Singaporean suspect who is not an employee of the company.
