Like a plot in a movie, a group of pirates armed with guns and parang held up the crew of a tugboat and barge in the high seas shortly after midnight.
They then towed the barge to a waiting tanker and off-loaded its cargo of crude palm oil before disappearing into the darkness.
This incident happened on Sunday.
Yesterday, the Johor marine police intercepted the tanker at Pengerang waters in Kota Tinggi and arrested 21 people, including its captain, and found 3,000 metric tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO) on board.
The CPO, valued at RM10 million, was believed to be the consignment from the barge hijacked by the armed pirates off the Pengerang coast.
Marine police chief (southern region) Assistant Commissioner Abdul Aziz Yusof said police detained the tanker Palm Chem following a report on the missing tugboat Samudera Sindo 8 and the barge Aganda 7.
Palm Chem is an Indonesian-registered tanker chartered by a Singapore-based company, JBS Resources Pte Ltd.
Update: Unable as yet to locate photo of "Palm Chem" - here's typical small vegetable oil tanker, however:
Update2: Slightly different version with more details here.
Update3: A "palm oil" war between the US soybean crowd and the Malaysian Palm Oil group? Details here.
Update4: An innocent bottle of palm oil:
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