‘Crime Is Learned’ – Why Smugglers Taking Big Risk, Says Analyst
Datuk Seri Akbar Satar says lucrative payments and organised crime networks are encouraging Malaysians to smuggle drugs despite facing the death penalty.
- Crime analyst Akhbar Satar warns that crime is learned, with smugglers studying existing methods and applying them to traffic drugs across borders.
- Organised crime syndicates are likely behind these cases, as the sheer quantity of drugs involved suggests connections beyond ordinary individuals.
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“Crime is learned” — and this could explain why more individuals are willing to take the risk of smuggling drugs across borders despite facing the possibility of the death penalty, according to crime analyst Datuk Seri Akhbar Satar.
Akhbar said drug traffickers were no longer necessarily individuals driven solely by financial desperation, as criminal networks and the lucrative rewards involved could also encourage them to take such risks.
“Of course, money is a factor. The payment is not small, so that would certainly attract people.
“But the main factor is that crime is learned. Those involved in smuggling would have seen how large quantities of drugs can be brought into our country, so they learn the methods used and apply them to smuggle drugs out of the country,” he told TRP today.
Akhbar said the influence of organised crime could also be encouraging individuals to become drug mules despite the potentially fatal consequences.
“Looking at the amount of drugs being smuggled by our citizens, there is almost certainly an organised crime syndicate behind it because the quantities involved are worth hundreds of thousands of ringgit.
“How could an ordinary person with no connections to a syndicate be trusted to transport such a large amount of drugs?” he asked.
The repeated cases also raised questions over whether Malaysia was increasingly becoming a source of drugs or merely serving as a transit point, he said.
“This also raises the question of whether Malaysia is now actually a drug-producing country or merely a transit country, because the amount of drugs being smuggled out is not small,” he said.
Akhbar was commenting on the arrest of another Malaysian in Thailand after authorities seized 166kg of crystal methamphetamine, or syabu, worth more than RM8 million in Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan, on Saturday.
According to reports, the Malaysian man was arrested after Thai police discovered the drugs concealed in several suitcases inside the BMW he was driving.
The latest case comes amid growing attention on Malaysians allegedly being used to transport large quantities of drugs across borders.
Previously, a 39-year-old Malaysian pilot, Mohd Saufi Othman, was arrested at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport after allegedly attempting to smuggle 26kg of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, comprising more than 70,000 tablets, as well as 4g of methamphetamine into Indonesia.
Mohd Saufi reportedly admitted that he had successfully smuggled drugs into the neighbouring country twice before his arrest in July.
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