Seven men have been arrested for their suspected involvement in an illegal transaction of marine gas oil (MGO) off Benoi Basin, according to the Singapore Police Coast Guard (PCG).
In a joint operation with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the PCG apprehended three crew members of a craft belonging to a marine service provider and another four crew members of a foreign-registered tugboat for illegal transaction of MGO .
The men, aged between 20 and 48, were taken into custody on May 21, 2019.
According to preliminary investigations, the crew members of the marine service provider’s craft have misappropriated 3 metric tonnes of MGO without their company’s knowledge and sold it to the crew members of a foreign-registered tugboat. The tugboat was seized for investigations, PCG added.
The authorities further explained that the three crew members will be charged in court with criminal breach of trust as servant, while the four tugboat crew members will be charged in court with dishonestly receiving stolen property.
If convicted, the crew may be punished with an imprisonment term which may extend to 15 and 5 years, respectively, PCG said.