Tonto means “stupid” or “crazy” in Spanish. That is why in the Spanish-language versions of the popular US TV series, The Lone Ranger, Tonto is called Toro, Spanish for bull.
But, in the Malaysian context, the word “tonto” takes a different meaning altogether.
It is used generally to describe a person or a group of persons who are “informers”, providing tip-offs about the movement of enforcement agencies to illegal operators for a fee.
They are ubiquitous, on land and even on sea, shadowing enforcement officers going on their rounds and alerting their “paymasters” to any impending raids.
Last year, top-selling tabloid Harian Metro front-paged a story on how men, posing as fishermen, would shadow the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and the Marine Police and tip off smugglers and human traffickers.
In return for their services, they are paid between RM100 and RM200 per tip-off. These “water sweeping” activities are apparently quite rampant off Johor, Kuala Terengganu and Port Klang.
These “tonto” gangs have become a bane to enforcement agencies. The situation has reached a critical stage where the authorities seem helpless in dealing with these groups.
Thus, it is heartening to read about how our police and Road Transport Department (RTD) officers had to resort to the Hollywood movie-style operation to bust several gangs of “tontos”.
Last week, they arrested at least 10 men in a sting operation carried out in Selangor and several other states.
One of the raids at the Shah Alam Expressway (Kesas) looked like a car-chase scene from a Hollywood thriller when a police helicopter scrambled into action to corner suspects.
“The operation on Tuesday was against thugs on the payroll of syndicates, which had been notorious in obstructing RTD officers from carrying out their duties,” Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mohmad Salleh said.
In the Kesas operation, RTD officers in marked vehicles were said to have been tailed by “tontos” as soon as they left one of their offices in the Klang Valley.
The group of 10 thugs, who were in seven vehicles, including several four-wheel drives, followed the RTD officers into a trap laid by plain-clothes police officers, and by the helicopter team, which immediately cornered them near a petrol station at the Kinrara exit.
A source said the suspects, aged between 20 and 40, were detained under the Prevention of Crime Act. Arrests were also made in other states. The NST was told that these “tonto” gangs had been providing “insurance” for lorry owners who wanted to avoid getting stopped and checked by RTD officers.
Sources said this had caused a snowball effect on lorry syndicates’ boldness to disregard the laws, including not having their commercial vehicles covered by insurance and not paying road tax.
Some companies had also been hiring non-licensed drivers to lower cost.
Our enforcement officers’ lives are also at stake. There have been reported cases where “tontos”, driving their vehicles, tried to crash into enforcement officers of the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry at roadblocks.
In one incident, the officers were conducting checks on lorries in Penang to track subsidised fuel smugglers when a lorry driver who was stopped suddenly jumped out and fled.
Minutes later, a pick-up truck rushed towards the officers, nearly swiping them.
As far as “tontos” are concerned, there are no “no-fly zones”. They operate even in deeply religious Kelantan, a Pas-held state.
Kota Baru Municipal Council enforcement personnel have complained that they were trailed by “tontos” in their raids on illegal shisha and karaoke joints.
“They were bold and showed no fear of the police who assisted the enforcement personnel in the operation,” a council officer was quoted as saying.
A veteran newsman, A. Jalil Hamid believes that a good journalist should be curious and sceptical at the same time