GOF northern brigade racks up 79 arrests, seizures worth RM1.9mil in first half of the year

IPOH: A total of 79 people have been arrested in various operations conducted by the Northern Brigade General Operations Forces (GOF) from January to June.

Northern Brigade GOF deputy commander Mohd Noh Khamis said 64 are Malaysians and the rest are from Thailand and Myanmar.

“During this period, we had about 188 cases in five different operations. It is fewer than (the same period) last year, where we recorded 205 cases.

“The decrease in cases is probably due to the ongoing movement control order and the closing of borders to the public,” he told reporters at the Northern Brigade GOF meeting room here on Monday (July 5).

Mohd Noh said the people arrested are aged between 17 and 45 years and the majority of them are unemployed.

“We also seized about 36kg of ketum leaves worth more than RM1mil, 14g of syabu worth RM1,041, and RM10,340 worth of contraband cigarettes.

“We also seized 465 bottles of cough medicine, 545kg of meat, 89 poultry birds, cars, motorcycles, boats, hunting rifles and ammunition.

“In total, we seized items worth RM1,946,406 during the operations,” he said.

He added that about 350 GOF personnel are on duty at 23 permanent land posts and 10 coastal posts every day.

“Although 'rat trails' change from time to time, we are still able to cover them with the help of drones.

“Our operations cover Ops Benteng between our land borders and Thailand; the north coast; Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security in Kota Putra and Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah, Padang Besar and Wang Kelian in Perlis, and Bukit Berapit in Perak.

“We also handle security control for Istana Kedah and Ops Bersepadu Khazanah,” he said.