TWO firearm smugglers who were arrested by police a month back have been smuggling in caches of weapons to Malaysia for almost a year, police investigations revealed.
 
The weapons that were smuggled from syndicates in southern Thailand into Kelantan were said to be worth RM6,000.
 
Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said the weapons were meant for Islamic State terror cell members here.
 
The suspects, aged 24 and 42, were detained on March 24 and 25 in Pasir Mas and Kota Bahru, Kelantan. One of them was allegedly planning an attack on a Shia mosque in Penang.
 
Their accomplice, aged 27, managed to give police the slip and escaped to southern Thailand via Sungai Golok at the Malaysia-Thailand border.
 
He took with him three weapons that have been smuggled in earlier.
 
Khalid said that the weapons were two M4 Carbines, a shorter version of the M16 rifle, and a pistol.
 
The suspect who is still at large has been identified as Muhammad Muzaffa Arieff Junaidi from Kampung Gertak, Rantau Panjang, Kelantan.
 
Khalid said the two suspects were among six arrested by the Counter Terrorism Unit during the one-month operation.
 
The other four arrests took place in Johor, Malacca, KLIA, and Penang. 

The suspect from Penang had been actively promoting the IS agenda through 15 Facebook accounts created since 2014.
 
Khalid said the 41-year-old unemployed man had been to Syria to join IS while the 32 year-old suspect, a woman assistant engineer of a factory in Johor, was arrested for allegedly promoting IS via Google application, Google Plus. 
 
In the KLIA case, the police re-arrested a 26-year-old college student who was earlier deported by Turkey in February for trying to travel illegally to Syria. She was re-arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. 
 
She had left Malaysia in last August and was waiting for instructions from Malaysia’s top IS recruiter Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi before she was arrested by the Turkish authorities.
 
A total of 300 people have been arrested for IS activities since 2013 while 140 have been charged in court for the various offences. – May 3, 2017.