Cops nab five involved in theft of nine cars worth RM650,000

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JOHOR BARU: A car theft syndicate has been stealing cars including those belonging to Singaporeans and parking them at public carparks to avoid arousing suspicion.

Police uncovered their modus operandi after they nabbed five people including a women and recovered at least nine cars worth RM650,000 in a series of raids in the city recently.

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Zainuddin Yaacob said the cars including models like BMW, Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi, were found parked in public parking lots and some of the cars had Singapore number plates.

Check this out: ACP Zainuddin (left) taking a look at one of the stolen cars.

“We raided a budget hotel in Yong Peng on Thursday and nabbed the suspects aged between 23 and 37 years old,” he said in a press conference here.

He added that the syndicate, known as Geng Panjang, has been operating since 2001 and several members were still at large.

“We believe that the syndicate steal cars at parking lots and disposes them for as low as RM7,000 each,” said ACP Zainuddin, adding that two of the suspects had previous criminal records and all of them were drug addicts.

He added the case was being investigated under Section 379A of the Penal Code for vehicle theft, Section 411 of the Penal Code for possessing stolen vehicles and Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.

On a separate matter, ACP Zainuddin said the police were looking for the next of kin of a burnt victim found in an oil palm estate in Plentong on Oct 23

“The body was found by two estate workers and we believe that it had been lying there for about two weeks.

“The victim is about 158cm tall, wore a Renoma shirt and a pair of slippers,” he said, adding that the victim was aged between 25 and 45 years old and had no identification documents.

ACP Zainuddin said the post mortem report revealed the victim died of strangulation and his jaw was broken and the case was classified as murder.

Those with information can call the police hotline at 07-2212 999 or the nearest police station to aid in investigations.