KANGAR, Jan 7 — The cross-border crime rate such as the entry of illegal immigrants and the smuggling of ketum leaves over the past year has experienced a significant decline following good cooperation between the local community and the Perlis police contingent.
Perlis police chief Datuk Surina Saad said the drop in cross-border crimes was the result of the early information channelled by the public which helped the police take preventive measures.
“I have been contacted by members of the public personally who channel information to the police because they want their area to be free from criminal activities and it should be commended,” she told Bernama here today.
She said last year, 74 illegal immigrants from Myanmar, Thailand, India, China and Indonesia were detained, compared to 234 the previous year, while Rohingya refugees were not detected in the state last year.
She said arrests and seizures involving the smuggling of ketum leaves to neighbouring countries also recorded a downward trend last year when police arrested 346 individuals and seized 178,402.60 kilogrammes (kg) of ketum leaves compared to 441 arrests and 183,264.62kg of ketum leaves seized the previous year.
Surina said drug seizures also recorded a decrease, with heroin seizures down by 30.5 per cent from 4,53kg in 2020 to 3.14kg last year, while syabu dropped by 91.5 per cent from 129.7kg in 2020 to 10.98kg last year.
However, the seizure of cannabis recorded an increase, from 103.9kg in 2020 to 413.9kg last year.
She said the achievement of the Perlis contingent was also the result of the success of Ops Benteng and Ops Wawasan which helped a lot in cross-border crime prevention efforts.
