TEMERLOH, June 22 — The police suspect that the East Coast Highway is a major route used by a human trafficking syndicate to smuggle foreigners into Malaysia after a road accident killed four Myanmar nationals on June 16, according to Bernama.

The police also stumbled on six others being smuggled in the same car, a Honda Accord, by the syndicate, along with a local driver. The car crashed at 134.1km of the highway near Temerloh at 4.15am.

State CID chief Datuk Zakaria Ahmad said preliminary investigations indicated that more than the 10 foreigners could have been smuggled into the country - using the same route - on the day of the accident.

“They were then taken via a river along the Malaysia-Thai border in Rantau Panjang, Kelantan before boarding a modified car with four in the boot and the rest in the car,” he said, as quoted by Bernama.

It is believed that each victim from Yangon had paid RM2,200 to be smuggled into the country, while the driver was paid RM500 for a single trip.

He declined to provide further details.

“The Pahang police, with the cooperation of the Bukit Aman police are still carrying out investigations into the matter,” Zakaria told a media conference at the Temerloh police headquarters here today.