Johor Police increase roadblocks to curb illegal crossings

JOHOR BAHRU: Johor police will increase the number of roadblocks from 35 to 50 to prevent unauthorised inter-state travel after detecting rat trails at several locations in the district border.

Johor police chief Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said police have identified the existence of such routes in Segamat, especially in oil palm estates.

"Following that, we (police) will further intensify control over those routes to prevent inter-state crossings in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

"In addition, we also detected rat trails at coastal areas under Ops Benteng," he told reporters after conducting checks on the level of public standard operating procedure (SOP) compliance at Larkin Sentral public market here today.

Ayob Khan, however, said no arrests were made during roadblock operations in the rat trails so far.

Meanwhile, he said 1,420 personnel, of which 1,254 are from the police force, are involved in the Movement Control Order (MCO) compliance monitoring teams statewide.

"Johor police have received a total of 25,222 applications for interstate travel from May 5 to 11, of which 24,693 were approved.

"A total of 39 vehicles out of the 28,394 vehicles inspected were ordered to turn back yesterday. Most of them had no police permits while some attempted to use expired travel permission letters," he said.

Ayob Khan also advised the public not to misuse the interstate or district travel permits and ensure SOP compliance during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.

-- BERNAMA