Bodies and dirty money line the rat routes into Thailand

The morning sun has barely risen over the town of Golok in Thailand, but already the streets are jammed with vehicles arriving from across the border in Malaysia. 

The noise of shouts and car horns fills the air as traders begin to set up their stalls, while others load four-wheel drives with fresh produce to be sold to customers in the nearest town of Rantau Panjang in Kelantan. 

As drivers flock to the gates of the Rantau Panjang-Sungai Golok immigration, customs, quarantine and security complex, along the banks of the river nearby, more activity of a decidedly less official nature is taking place. 

There, things have been moving since before 7am. 

At one base, several loads of goods have already passed through to Malaysia with the authorities none the wiser – sacks of rice and cartons of cigarettes, frozen food, snacks, tinned food and drinks, all smuggled in from Thailand. 

For Thai national Yatie, such things are a daily occurrence. For 20 years now, she has followed her parents to and fro across Sungai Golok to sell sweetmeats from Thailand to the tourists in Rantau Panjang. 

"When I grew up, I wondered why people were angry and afraid of taking boats at the river," she said. 

"It turns out it was wrong. But what can we do? This is how we grew up, no one stopped us from doing it. I don't think it's wrong." 

Speaking to MalaysiaNow, she said there were dozens of spots with illegal activities more dangerous than where she and her parents transport goods – Pengkalan Gaji, Kajang, Retak and Cek Kasim, to name a few. 

It is understood that these bases were shut down by the authorities in 2017. 

Bodies

In May, the police said 136 illegal bases were found to be rat routes for smuggling activities along Sungai Golok, in Rantau Panjang, Pengkalan Kubor and Tumpat. 

When contacted, an officer from the General Operations Force (PGA) said the illegal routes were used not only for human trafficking and smuggling, but also as dumping grounds for what were thought to be drug crimes. 

The officer, who was rotated among a number of PGA posts along Sungai Golok for four years before being transferred to a different unit, said bodies would be fished out of the river almost every day, all bearing the marks of violence. 

Some were shot while others were badly beaten or stabbed. 

"There were also cases of drowning, but we knew the reason, and we would conduct searches at the border with the Thai authorities," the officer said. 

"Cases of such deaths were always happening. Some of them were pursued by the Thai authorities, then shot and left where they fell. 

"We were the ones who found them. Some of them were Thai nationals, some of them were locals," the officer added, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

New attraction in Thailand

Since the international border at Rantau Panjang-Sungai Golok was reopened on May 5, more and more tourists have been choosing to enter Thailand by boat. 

Several boat operators said they had been ferrying nearly twice the number of passengers that they did before. 

"They are looking for marijuana since it is now 'halal' there," one of them, Abe Li, said. 

"They enter by boat as they are afraid that if they go by land, they will be forced to take a urine test." 

Abe said he had received telephone calls from some of his loyal passengers for river crossings at certain times of the day. Each passenger is charged RM20 per trip. 

"There are two slots," he said. "It's easy to get in before dawn, but it's dark. 

"Otherwise, they enter Thailand after 7pm when the soldiers there are changing shifts."