Malaysian Police Detain 23 Indonesian Fishermen

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Malaysian police have detained 23 Indonesian fishermen after they were found to have been been fishing in waters off the eastern Sabah state on Borneo island, reports said Thursday.

Marine police detained the 23 men, aged between 17 and 40, and seized four boats containing a barrel of fish and two live sea turtles, the department's regional enforcement chief Ahmad Puzi Abdul Kahar was quoted as saying by the official Bernama agency.

Ahmad Puzi said the fishermen and their boats would be handed over to the Fisheries Department for further action, adding that the two turtles were immediately released.

Last month, marine police seized more than 300 sea turtles - most of them dead and preserved - and detained 32 Chinese fishermen for encroachment and poaching of the endangered animals.