Crime & Courts

Malaysians with drugs, firearms among 650 nabbed in Sungai Golok

SUNGAI GOLOK: A total 650 Malaysians have been detained in a series of operations in Sungai Golok, Thailand, for various crimes this year, including possession of drugs and firearms.

Sungai Golok police chief Colonel Pratya Baite said they were detained in the border town between January and last month.

He added that other Malaysians were nabbed over their involvement in human trafficking and other illegal activities.

He said the number of Malaysians detained in the border town in the first nine months of the year, however, had dropped slightly compared with last year.

"Thai police believe that the reason behind the drop in the figure was because of our joint operations with the Kelantan police in combating crimes, especially those taking place along the border of both countries.

"We hope this good cooperation will continue. Among our most successful operations was the rescue of the cosmetic agent kidnapped in Tumpat and smuggled into Thailand last month."

Pratya said, in the whole of last year, 864 Malaysians, mostly from Kelantan, were detained for drug abuse, firearms possession and smuggling activities.

He told this to Malaysian reporters during the 108th Thai Police Day celebrations here yesterday.

Present were Pasir Mas police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Nasaruddin M. Nasir and senior officers of border agencies based in Kelantan.

Pratya said he had also directed officers in two Thai police stations bordering Kelantan to work closely with their Malaysian counterparts.

Besides the Sungai Golok police station, the other station was the Mundok police station opposite Kampung Bukit Lata in Rantau Panjang.

Meanwhile, Nasaruddin said Kelantan police were always ready to exchange information with their Thai counterparts on crime and other illegal activities.

"We hope that this will help both countries in reducing cross-border crime that occurs along the Malaysia-Thailand border in Kelantan," he said.

Nasaruddin said there were five police stations in Pasir Mas, which bordered Sungai Golok town, namely Jeram Perdah, Bakong Lubok Setol, Rantau Panjang and Meranti.

It is learnt that the majority of those detained in the border sub-province were those involved in drugs.

Sources said some of the Malaysian suspects nabbed were believed to be members of an international drug syndicate.

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