The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (famous as the MMEA) has discovered nearly 100 cannonballs from World War II that are believed to be still active on a cargo vessel from China, which were detained on Sunday.
Result Of Collaboration
The director of Johor Maritime, Nurul Hizam Zakaria, said that the discovery was an outcome of the collaboration between the police and agency, the Marine Department of Malaysia, and the Department of National Heritage. He said that the operation that started yesterday at around 8 am and got done by 4 pm involved two exclusive MMEA assets in collaboration with 15 personnel, 12 police personnel associated with the headquarters of the Johor police contingent’s bomb disposal unit, seven members from the Department of National Heritage, and one from Malaysia’s Marine Department.
Warship Wrecks
The possibility that the vessel is registered in Fuzhou, China, remains. It could be part of the theft of old Britain-based warship wrecks in Pahang waters. He added that ammunition of different sizes that were found was carefully secured by personnel of the bomb disposal department to be destroyed.
Nurul Hizam also said that the police would share more reports specific to the discovery. Bernama reported that a cargo vessel had anchored without authorization and was believed to be loaded with cannon shells at about 20.1 nm east of Tanjung Siang in Kota Tinggi on Sunday.
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Source: Marineinsight
