M'sia police foil baby-smuggling

M'sia police foil baby-smuggling

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Police have thwarted an attempt to smuggle two babies into
Malaysia from neighboring Indonesia in a styrofoam box, a report
said on Sunday.

The New Sunday Times newspaper said police rescued the two
infants -- a two-month-old boy and a two-week-old girl -- and
detained a local man at a pier in the southern Johor state.

The babies were hidden in a styrofoam box of the type used to
keep fish and could have been brought in from Indonesia's Batam
island by boat, it said.

The babies were sound asleep when they were discovered as they
had been fed milk laced with sleeping pills.

An envelope containing birth certificates, believed to have
been issued by a clinic in Indonesia, was also seized.

Acting on a tip-off, police waited at the Pangerang district's
fishing port late on Friday and detained a Malaysian man who
claimed he had been paid 200 ringgit (US$50) by a smuggling
syndicate to receive the babies and sell them to a third party,
local police spokesman Sutiman Rohani said.

District police chief Tajudin Mohamad Isa said the babies had
been placed under the care of Kota Tinggi Hospital.

Both babies were healthy and had been placed under the care of
the state welfare department, a hospital spokeswoman said on
condition of anonymity.

It was the first known incident of baby smuggling in that
district, but police there were beefing up vigilance against the
practice, Sutiman said.

The smuggling of drugs, babies, prostitutes and domestic
workers from Indonesia has long been a problem in Malaysia
because of porous land and sea borders between the countries.