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Ushar Daniele

Two men were arrested on Thursday after shots were fired at a car carrying the Malaysian border police chief, in what authorities believe was retribution for a crackdown on rampant smuggling.
The porous border between Malaysia and Thailand is a notorious crossing used by crime gangs trafficking people, drugs, weapons and other contraband, including food and subsidised diesel for sale into the Thai market.
Before dawn on Wednesday, two suspects wearing helmets on a motorcycle fired shots at a car ferrying senior Assistant Commissioner Mohd Nasaruddin Mohd Nasir, Bukit Kayu Hitam Malaysian Control and Border Protection Agency (AKPS) commander.
He escaped without injury.
The shooting was believed to be a warning from a crime group operating between Thailand’s Danok and the border with Malaysia, according to Kedah police chief Commissioner Adzli Abu Shah.
The gang smuggles rice, meat and migrants into Malaysia.
“The syndicate is believed to be unhappy with the crackdown, and this attack is viewed as a threat or intimidation tactic,” he told This Week in Asia.
“The syndicate is believed to operate on both the Malaysian and Thai sides of the border,” he said, adding that “crimes are rampant” in the area.
Two suspects were taken into custody on Thursday but details of the arrest, including their nationalities, were not released.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the AKPS director general Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said the shooting was believed to be linked to operations carried out by border forces, including the seizure of almost US$800,000 worth of food, alcohol, medicine and pork carried out between January 15 and February 15.
Multiple threats against border officers had been made but “we did not expect it to escalate to that level” of the shooting, he said.
The Thai land border is believed to be the main southern transit route for methamphetamine, both yaba and the more potent crystal meth or Ice version.

Malaysian border authorities reported more than US$21.1 million in seizures so far this year, including about US$5.2 million worth of narcotics and about US$15.4 million in agricultural and controlled products.
In November, drug syndicates along the border were caught smuggling meth and marijuana hidden in the rectums of livestock – a tactic that has been used over the years with both cows and pigs to transport smaller amounts of narcotics.
Diesel has long been smuggled northward to Thailand from Malaysia, where prices were significantly lower until recently due to heavy state subsidies.
Plagued by crime, as well as a southern Thai insurgency whose main operators move freely across the border, both Malaysia and Thailand have repeatedly floated the idea of a border wall across their frontier.
But the 595km (370 miles) border runs across remote forests and rugged hills, making it a wildly expensive and challenging task to block off all informal routes between the countries.
Last October, Malaysia’s government announced that it would fast-track a 110km concrete wall along high-risk stretches, including the Chuping-Padang Besar area in Perlis, to combat persistent illicit activity that has repeatedly exploited old, easily breached barbed-wire fencing.


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This Week in Asia

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Authorities have linked the attack on Mohd Nasaruddin Mohd Nasir’s car to the mounting smuggling crackdown along the porous border


Authorities have linked the attack on Mohd Nasaruddin Mohd Nasir’s car to the mounting smuggling crackdown along the porous border.


Thailand

Crime

2 arrested after Malaysian border police chief targeted by gang shooting near Thailand

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Authorities have linked the attack on Mohd Nasaruddin Mohd Nasir’s car to the mounting smuggling crackdown along the porous border

Authorities have linked the attack on Mohd Nasaruddin Mohd Nasir’s car to the mounting smuggling crackdown along the porous border