NILAI, April 26 – The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (JKDM) is in the process of purchasing 20 sniffer dogs and three backscatter scanning machines to ensure more effective efforts in combating drug smuggling activities in the country.
Its deputy director-general (Enforcement and Compliance), Datuk Sazali Mohamad said his team will receive the dogs of the Labrador and German Shepherd breeds, involving a cost of RM1.9 million, in June.
“Currently, the customs department has 20 drug detection dogs, and the additional 20 dogs will be placed in each state. As for the costs of the backscatter machines, I do not have the detailed information,” he said at a press conference on Friday.
“We are also in the process of studying the detection system used in South Korea because it is a sophisticated screening system, and we hope that the system used will be a scanning machine that has the ability of Artificial Intelligence to detect drugs.”
He elaborated that in the scanning system used in South Korea, all parcels are screened and their images sent to a group of customs officers working in a control room.
According to him, about 20 customs officers working in the control room will identify on the screen provided the images of the goods sent by couriers, and if they find any suspicious goods, the courier company involved will be called in for further inspection of the items.
