Honeymoon over for Bukit Kayu Hitam smugglers: CPO

LANGKAWI: For the smuggling underworld, the honeymoon is over at the Bukit Kayu Hitam Malaysia–Thailand border checkpoint near Kedah.
Come Nov 1, it will cease to be a haven for a myriad of illegal activities as the new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex swings into action.
Kedah police chief Datuk Asri Yusoff said the new CIQ complex would fix all loopholes that had been identified to have impeded the efforts of enforcement agencies in the area.
"The complex's operations will solve existing problems and put an end to the (many) loopholes which criminals manipulated and took advantage of," he told reporters after the closing of the 21st Malaysia/Thailand Border Information Cooperation Agencies Meeting (BICAM) here today.
Asri, who jointly chaired the meeting with Thailand's Songkhla Provincial Police Commander, Police Maj Gen Preeda Piamwaree, said the new complex and the extended operational hours of the border checkpoint were among matters discussed at the meeting.
"The border checkpoint operational hours will be extended from the current 18 hours to 20 hours, effective Nov 1 and would be further extended to 24 hours beginning Jan 1, 2019. The police are ready for all these," he said.
The three-day meeting attended by 48 senior officers representing the police and several other enforcement agencies from Malaysia and Thailand began yesterday, with discussions pertaining to the latest information on trans-boundary crimes.
Meanwhile, Preeda said the meeting forged cooperation between the two police forces and other enforcement agencies to share information and curtail criminal activities. — Bernama