JOHOR BARU, Sept 16 — The Johor Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) detained two men and seized nine packs of exotic meat at a restaurant in Jalan Tanjung Masai in Masai near here yesterday.

State director Salman Saaban said the enforcement team, consisting of Johor Perhilitan officers and the Seri Alam district police personnel, raided the premises in Masai at 1pm as part of an integrated operation against outlets selling exotic meat.

“Checks revealed that the premises stored what is believed to be wildlife meat for consumption with seven packs of Asian water monitor lizard meat and two packs of wild boar meat.

“After interrogation, the premises operator failed to show any Perhilitan documentation or license to store such meat,” he said in a statement today.

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The two suspects, a 57-year-old local and a foreign worker in his 20s, were later detained.

The raiding team also seized the refrigerator used to store the exotic meat.

Salman said the raiding team later lodged a police report under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 (Act 716) that aims to curb poaching and smuggling of wildlife meat.

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“The seized items were brought to the Johor Perhilitan office, while the two suspects are under police custody at the Seri Alam district police headquarters,” he said.

On August 10, Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar expressed anger over poaching activities that are still going on in the state forests. 

Shortly after that, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador ordered all district police chiefs in the country to ensure that their respective areas are free from illegal restaurants selling or serving exotic meat.

He said the directive was issued to help Perhilitan combat rampant illegal poaching activities.