REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BATAM -- Indonesia's Marine Police have detained five Vietnamese-flagged vessels for illegal fishing in Natuna waters, a spokesman of Riau Island police stated.

"The five vessels with Vietnamese flag that were detained on July 8 were found to be poaching in Natuna waters," Senior Commissioner S Erlangga WR said here, Wednesday.

The vessels did not have any legal documents, he added.

The foreign ships are BV 4851 TS, BV 4850 TS, BV 5209 TS, BV 5560 TS, and BV 5561 TS. All the ship's captains and crew are Vietnamese.

The police have also seized tons of fish as evidence.

"They have violated section 27 (2) of law no. 45/2009 on fishery because of illegal fishing," he explained.

The five vessels were detained at Batuampar Port in Batam, while the ship's crew were questioned by Riau Islands police.

Earlier on July 1, the Marine Police arrested two Malaysian-flagged ships with Vietnamese crew for poaching.

All the ships' crew were detained by Batam fishery monitoring agency for further questioning.

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