KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — The National Task Force (NTF) plans to increase its assets especially the maritime assets to curb smuggling of illegal immigrants and cross-border crime.

Its commander Vice-Admiral Datuk Aris Adi Tan Abdullah said the NTF was currently using the available assets for the operations codenamed ‘Ops Benteng’.

He said as ‘Ops Benteng’ was an integrated operation, the movement of the assets must be coordinated in order to achieve the targeted mission.

"Therefore, the NTF is currently planning to add new assets, especially our maritime assets, and among the proposed assets are interceptor boats.

"These assets are crucial for ‘Ops Benteng’ and we need these boats to intercept illegal immigrants in our waters,” he told Bernama in a special interview at the NTF headquarters here.

Aris said the NTF was also planning to increase its air assets capacity such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

Elaborating, he said these assets were important to conduct real-time surveillance, besides providing fast and accurate information.

"At the moment, the government is preparing a special allocation for the NTF and is procuring the assets,” he said.

For land requirements, Aris said the NTF was planning to acquire mobility assets to improve intelligence operations.

Meanwhile, asked on the ‘Ops Benteng’, Aris said the NTF was tasked with coordinating and optimising the human resources and assets, as well as the movement of all enforcement agencies.

He said the coordination was effective especially in terms of intelligence sharing, patrolling of areas, and managing the detention of illegal immigrants because everything was centralised.

Activated on May 12 under the NTF, ‘Ops Benteng’ is the collaboration between the Royal Malaysia Police, Malaysian Armed Forces, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, and all land and maritime enforcement agencies. — Bernama