Malaysian Smuggling Bust Decimates Military Intel Unit
Intelligence chiefs were telling smugglers where the patrols weren’t
The Malaysian government is in a state of shock after five senior officers of the Malaysian Defense Intelligence Organization, its elite secret security safeguard, were arrested late last week along with several others including two former officers turned journalists in a massive smuggling operation dubbed “kind of a Walmart of contraband” that had been operating for as long as five years.
Among the arrested after a year-long probe was Colonel Muhammad Haris Asmuni, the director of the Counter-Intelligence Security Detachment, who along with his comrades has been accused of trading sensitive Malaysian military operational secrets to the smuggling syndicate, allegedly amassing as much as RM3 million (US$714,000) in bribes.
As Asia Sentinel reported in 2023, the Malaysian military is among the region’s weakest, riddled with corruption, poor planning, and interference by political leaders in procurement, no longer a potent force even in managing low-level intensity conflict. The discovery that five of its elite intelligence officers were trading operational data to aid a smuggling operation has to add to the malaise.
The speculation is that the intelligence officials were relaying the position of military vessels and units in the southern area of Johor Bahru across the strait from Singapore to allow smuggling vessels to elude them while bringing contraband into the country. Four unnamed companies have been linked to the smuggling of prohibited goods, an indication that the suspects were passing the contraband into respectable-looking hands for resale.
The investigation, known as Ops Sohor, focused on the southern part of the country, bearing out that theory. The five were said to be members of the country’s primary intelligence agency, entrusted to gather and protect information on the Royal Malaysian Navy, the Air Force, and the Army, which would have put them in an ideal position to observe the movements of the entire Malaysian military. Authorities have frozen bank accounts belonging to 12 individuals, as well as 24 accounts linked to an unnamed company totaling RM155,609.77, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission head Azam Baki told reporters.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, on taking office in 2022, augmented the military budget by 10 percent. But as the International Institute for Strategic Studies reported in 2024, “In the past, Malaysia had sporadic bilateral tensions with Indonesia and Singapore, but it effectively opted out of military competition with both countries after the Asian financial crisis seriously undermined its economy and defense budget over 25 years ago. The contingencies to which Malaysia’s armed forces might conceivably need to respond are largely of a low-intensity type.”
Piracy, armed robbery, illegal fishing by foreign countries, pollution and safety at sea and unauthorized military activities are among major security issues facing the country, wrote military analyst B A Hamzah on Asia Sentinel on October 9, 2023. “A weak Navy and the poorly equipped Air Force and the Maritime Enforcement Agency have encouraged illegal activities at sea including the occasional harassment of economic activities by foreign elements.”
Added to the military misery, according to Azam Baki, 10 individuals are under arrest including three lieutenant colonels, a captain, two former military officers now working for an unnamed news website, a company manager, an administrative assistant from the Malaysian Medical Association, and an Indonesian woman said to be the mistress of the intelligence ringleader.
The operation was carried out beginning August 13 by the MACC Intelligence Division with assistance from the Anti-Corruption Tactical Squad, raiding sites around Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs. Azam described an operation that smuggled drugs and cigarettes with an estimated value of around RM5 million (US$1.18 million) per month, with bribery payments to the senior officers ranging from RM30,000 to RM50,000 per operation. More than RM63,000 in cash, packets of drugs, weighing and measuring equipment, liquor, and imitation firearms were seized from raided premises.
Azam told a press conference that the two suspects who were described as “journalists” were, in fact, social media personnel who had former military backgrounds and had been acting as facilitators by leaking sensitive operational information to the smuggling syndicate. Azam told the national news service Bernama that the MACC has reason to believe the unnamed media company is being used as a front to enable and facilitate money laundering activities.
The investigation is continuing, he said, with no new arrests made as of now, although the MACC is sifting through evidence that could potentially link other individuals.
“If further connections to money laundering or other illegal activities are found, we will pursue additional leads,” Azam confirmed, although he said that there are no further arrests pending at this stage. He said his agency is not ruling out the possibility of cross-border networks, sensible enough given that the contraband had to come from somewhere outside the country.
“If top-secret information can leak into the hands of smugglers, who can guarantee that neighboring countries' spies or international smuggling cartels and criminal networks aren't laughing hysterically at our defense weaknesses?” asked a Kuala Lumpur source. “Imagine – the head of a counter-intelligence unit, who should have been the hunter of foreign spies, is now a wolf in sheep's clothing.”
Good piece to read. On the other hand, it comes as no surprise yet again at the level of insidious greed and corruption amongst upper-echelon Malay-Muslims in Malaysia in spite of so-called reverent claims that their Islam is the best religion in the world, or the only religion in the world, because it teaches its followers "virtues" of the good and pious and honest self like none other. And yet, time and again, what it shows amongst Malaysian Malays-Muslims is their insatiable greed, not just for political power but also for material greed. Political power lays the floor for Malay-Muslims to practise to art of lying (through their teeth), smuggling, racketeering, murdering, stealing, robbing, bullying, heisting, raping, adultery (khalwat-ism), incest, and more corruption-corruption-corruption -- and all of this, as with previous prime ministers, under the very nose of the tenth low-class, balls-less prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Even Malaysians have know that, as with the country's police force and its bureaucracy, its military -- all 98-99%% dominated by Malay-Muslims as their exclusive preserve -- has engaged in corrupt practices, from stealing and on-selling military parts and equipment to cutting corners on, for example, littoral combat ship making, corners which are pocketed by those the Malay state condones as very Islamic in its virtue by protecting the criminals or delaying and then killing off investigations and even prosecution in Malaysia's so-called Palace of Justice court system that is as political as the totally corrupt and hideously lazy Malay-dominated bureaucracy at local,state and federal levels. It's so easy to bribe Malaysia's Customs and Immigration and get away with murder. No questions asked.
To all intents and purposes, Malaysia is simply another Third World pariah state of the so-called Global South. Malaysia is Asia's Zimbabwe under Mugabe and now Mnangagwa. It is worse than the Ferdinand Marcos Sr era of corruption coupled with Malay-Muslim religi authoritarianism. It's so shamefully and openly racist, led these days by the corrupt Umno boss Zahid Hamidi who has unleashed his one-screw-loose, racist attack dog, Akmal Salleh, supposedly a doctor (probably of the lowest standard) who defies the idea that Malaysia has a "civilized society" and practices "rule of law". It is is anything but civilized despite its glass towers and fancy highways; it is feudal by nature, through every inkling of its being, and more or less lawless since one can buy justice or the police against indictments.
This is not to suggest there are those in the Chinese and Indian communities who do not behave like the Malay-Muslims. It's just that they haven't yet been caught or even targeted. Question is why. It's also because lawlessness -- in addition to the balls-less Malay state and a cowardly Malay regime -- that Malay-Muslims are so ubiquitous in Malaysia's overflowing corruption crime spree, from petty stuff to big monstrous rackets like the one mentioned in this article. The biggest one is of course the convicted criminal Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor's brazen heist of 1MDB.
Isn't going to mosque every Friday at noon for prayers a complete waste of time, if not 100% hypocritical? Isn't that what Malaysia is -- two-faced that speaks with forked tongues, much like Anwar Ibrahim does in his every waking hour and in his sleep?