Descrption:
It has been a highly successful three days for city police, seizing nine guns and arresting 12 suspected criminals in two operations in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
The seizure of the nine guns will come as a pleasant surprise to city cops as they try to improve on their tally for last year.
Last year, they seized almost 30 pistols and shotguns in various operations.
City Chief Police Officer Datuk Mustafa Abdullah was clearly pleased with his men’s work, especially in the past three days, when announcing the recent success at a Press conference yesterday.
On Saturday morning, a team from the city’s serious crimes branch, raided a five-star hotel in the city and arrested two Singaporeans and four locals, believed to be triad members from across the Causeway.
The raiding party also seized six handguns from the suspects.
At the same time, another police team comprising members from the city’s serious crimes branch and Federal police, were on another high-level operation.
That operation resulted in the arrest of six members of a luxury car theft syndicate and the seizure of three pistols.
The weapons were a Smith & Wesson revolver, a Norinco semi-automatic pistol, a Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol and 30 rounds of ammunition.
Also seized were a Toyota Harrier, Nissan Sentra, Lexus and Proton Gen2 believed to be stolen vehicles and an assortment of fake registration plates and road tax stickers.
Mustafa said the latest operation was the result of five months of surveillance and hard work. They made their first arrest on Friday in Penang where they arrested a member of the syndicate.
Following interrogation of the suspect, the police team raided two locations in Cheras early yesterday and arrested five other members and seized three guns.
Mustafa said this syndicate is believed to be responsible for at least 40 cases of luxury car thefts in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malacca, Penang, Johor and Perak.
They are also believed to be behind the robbery at a used car lot in Jalan Ampang Hilir in Sept 1 last year where seven cars worth RM2.4 million were taken.
"This was a very thorough group. They had maps on escape routes during each heist," he said. "They also had a book with a list of luxury vehicles targeted, complete with model, colour and registration numbers."
Many of cars on the list had a tick next to them, indicating that these targets were already stolen.
"From reports lodged by the victims, we believe the syndicate members were high on drugs during their heists. In several cases, they had used firearms," Mustafa said. |