PUTRAJAYA: To overcome the danger posed by tontos during border patrols in the north and south of Peninsular Malaysia, the Royal Malaysian Customs Department has purchased 80 Isuzu D-MAX 3.0 vehicles worth an estimated RM7.2 million.
The powerful four-wheel drives are equipped with bull bars and video cameras to safeguard enforcement personnel on duty.
"The cameras are meant to record the tonto threats. So I'm warning the syndicates and their tontos to stop challenging us.
"Whoever tries to interfere in the duties of Customs officers will have to bear the consequences," warned its director-general, Datuk Subromaniam Tholasy.
He personally inspected the vehicles and handed over their keys to the heads of the enforcement and investigative units at the foyer of his department this morning.
Describing the continuous tonto threats as serious, Subromaniam said his personnel handle an average of 40 tonto cases per year.
"Some of my good officers have lost their lives to tontos. So our job now is not just to protect the national revenues, but also to maintain the safety of our Customs officers. Buying these new, sturdy 4WD is one of our preventive measures against the tontos.
"We will review the effectiveness of these vehicles by year end," he said.
Kedah, Perlis, Johor and Kelantan have been identified as hot spots for notorious tonto activities, with estimated losses of revenue standing in the billions.
"The tontos attack us by dashing through our border patrol, committing commercial fraud or smuggling in broad daylight. I admit we have smuggling issues," Subromaniam said.
To beef up its enforcement unit, armed Customs officers, code named “Cobra officers”, have also been deployed.
"But the Cobra officers are only handling high-profile and high-risk cases. We have a few teams. Each team has between 10 to 20 officers, depending on the case. But we've trained hundreds of them," he added.
There are currently 3,000 enforcement officers serving the department nationwide.