SANDAKAN, MALAYSIA - Customs officers stopped smugglers from taking out 15,487kg of cooking oil to the southern Philippines on Tuesday.

Three locals aged between 30 and 60 were detained when the officers found the cooking oil worth RM30,000 on a Zamboanga City-bound ferry at the port here.

Sabah Customs deputy director Abdullah Zawawi Abd Latif said the men did not have permits to export cooking oil.

"Our officers spotted a number of sacks bearing logos claiming to be fertiliser. On checking, they found the cooking oil instead," he said yesterday.

He said the oil were packed in 1kg packets, adding that it was the first time they came across smugglers trying to use the port to take out large quantities of cooking oil.