MALAYSIA’S geographic position and regulatory gaps have made it a preferred transit hub for international drug cartels, criminology experts have warned.
The country’s extensive and open maritime borders facilitate the smuggling of narcotics through sea routes, a loophole exploited by syndicates for decades.
“Firstly, bringing drugs into the country is easy because our nation is surrounded by open seas,” said Datuk Shahul Hamid Abdul Rahim, a leading independent criminologist.
Shahul highlighted that weaknesses in container inspections have reinforced Malaysia’s role as a transit country. Many goods declarations are not thoroughly verified, allowing containers to conceal illicit substances.
“People declare other goods, but enforcement officers do not carry out inspections. They do not check whether the contents of the containers actually match the declared items or not,” Sinar Harian reported him saying on Tuesday.
He added that enforcement officers often accept cargo reports without physical inspection, enabling cartels to swap the declared contents with drugs or other contraband.
“If it is routine (business), the authorities assume the goods are legitimate, but in reality, the containers may contain drugs or other items,” Shahul said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had previously disclosed the existence of large drug cartels operating via containers from Port Klang for the past 20 years, although significant action was not taken until recently.
Shahul noted that the cartels’ operations are long-established and resilient, partly due to inconsistent enforcement practices and static deployment of officers in sensitive areas.
“People work there for decades. So they know the system and the personnel. With the gaps available, they will exploit the officers’ weaknesses,” he said.
He urged the government to reinstate regular rotation policies, recommending a three to five-year tenure for enforcement officers in critical positions to prevent entrenched networks.
Former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain emphasised that enforcement has been ongoing over the past two decades, but operational secrecy prevented public disclosure. “
Arrests were made even before my time, but previous directors or police chiefs chose not to speak publicly about these cartels,” he said. “We were concerned they would change their modus operandi, making detection and enforcement more difficult.” - November 18, 2025
