Abstract: Muslims had been living in Thai and Malaysian borderland and interacting across the borders even before the two states were officially established. After WWII (1946 A.D. or 2489 B.E.), the Thai government monopolised rice export and set the rice price two or three times lower than the price in Malaysia and Singapore. A significant price difference was a starting point of unofficial rice trade which turned into a multitude of trading activities in the past 67 years. Cross border rice trade faced difficulties with strict border controls from Thai and Malaysian authorities. As a result, the traders needed to adjust and negotiate with the law by using various trading strategies including a network of relatives, friends, people from a similar racial group, Ant Army smugglers, the patron-client system, trust, a change of role from a trader to a network coordinator to reduce investment cost and risks, and partnerships between networks to share job roles and trading points.