NILAI: Police raided a factory at Broga that was found to be illegally processing alcohol and seized the contraband worth RM4mil.

The facility at Jalan Broga, Kampung Orang Asli Broga, Lenggeng, near Nilai, was raided on Aug 24.

Negri Sembilan police chief Datuk Ruslan Khalid said during the 5.30pm raid carried out by a team from the D9 division of the state police headquarters, three Myanmar nationals were detained and 22,848 cans of alcohol and equipment used for processing alcohol worth RM182,784 were seized.

He said in a follow-up operation, two local men were also detained on Aug 30, and all the suspects would be remanded to assist in investigations.

“The suspects are believed to have been using an abandoned factory for almost two years to process alcohol illegally, namely canned beer with a high alcohol content (16 to 18%) with brand names like DJ Premium Strong Beer, Brew Extra Larger Manblo, Hades Beer Extra Strong Beer, and Oi Premium Strong Beer.

“We believe a full range of alcohol processing has been carried out, right from manufacturing to packing to distribution.

“This contraband alcohol is produced for the local and international markets with prices ranging from RM5 to RM10 a can,” he told reporters at the factory here yesterday.

The modus operandi of the suspects was to identify an isolated abandoned factory for the operations, and use foreign workers to carry out the operation to avoid being detected by the authorities.

Ruslan said the Myanmar nationals, whose passports had expired, only used the backdoor for entry and exit, and added that initial investigations revealed that the owner of the factory had passed away. — Bernama