PASIR MAS, Oct 6 — The 7th Battalion General Operations Force (PGA7) has identified 40 new rat routes on the Malaysia-Thailand border since the implementation of the Covid-19’s Op Benteng in March.

PGA7 assistant commanding officer DSP Ku Majidin Che Ku Jusoh said, 88 rat routes were identified along Sungai Golok starting from Pengkalan Kubor, Tumpat to Rantau Panjang before the implementation of Covid-19 Op Benteng, bringing the number of rat routes along the border to 128 to date.

"We believe the newly opened routes are to enable smugglers to bring in and out various contrabands as the previous routes had been tightly guarded,” he told reporters when met at the Lubok Setol PGA Tactical Headquarters, here, today.

He said most of the new rat routes were located in areas that posed difficulty for the authorities to track the movements of the smugglers.

"Some of the new routes are close to the borders of the two countries and they are located in areas with dense undergrowth and far from settlements, and in fact not very accessible for ordinary vehicles.

"The smugglers are also willing to shoulder goods (for a distance) from the banks of Sungai Golok to their vehicles,” he said. — Bernama