GOF central brigade commander Hakemal Hawari said the operation carried out with the department of environment (DoE) and local authorities led to the arrest of 47 people.

“Those detained were five Malaysians and 42 foreigners, three of them women.

“The foreigners arrested were Chinese and Myanmar nationals, Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Cambodians and Singaporeans,” he said in a statement.

Hakemal said the case is being investigated under the Environmental Quality Act 1974, Firearms Act 1960 and Immigration Act 1963.

Yesterday, the GOF’s southeast brigade said it had crippled a syndicate that illegally processed e-waste after raids on two separate factories in Pekan and Gebeng, Pahang, on Saturday.

They had found dozens of sacks of e-waste and scheduled waste such as black powder (copper/nickel), more than 670 tonnes of unprocessed silver, believed to have been brought in from China, as well as various machines and machinery processing disposal materials without DoE documents.