GEORGE TOWN, Jan 16 — The police crippled a gang involved in the alleged theft of Telekom Malaysia (TM) cables worth RM910,448 in Penang and Kedah after arresting a subcontractor appointed by the company along with 13 of his employees.

Penang police chief Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said acting on information received and intelligence gathering, the police carried out an inspection at the Jalan Tanjung Bungah-Jalan Bunga Park traffic light junction 2.40am on January 10.

"A few days before that, the company (TM) received a complaint that some areas around Tanjung Bungah were experiencing internet disruption suspected to be caused by cable theft before it was reported to the police.

"We then conducted an inspection and found that there were 11 men who were cutting and removing underground cables there, but they failed to show documents for carrying out the work there,” he said at a press conference here today.

He said the police then arrested eight individuals, including a woman, in several locations around Sungai Petani, Kedah on the same day, whereby three men were employees of the sub-contractor while the other five were purchasers of the cables stolen by the syndicate.

Mohd Shuhaily said following the arrests, the police managed to solve 27 cases of cable theft, namely 17 in Penang and 10 in Kedah.

"All those arrested were aged between 27 and 47, and urine tests found seven of them positive for drugs, while 14 of the 19 individuals arrested had between two to 12 criminal records each,” he said.

According to him, the police confiscated four vehicles including a lorry, 65 TM cables, mobile phones (14), street cones (12), machetes, pipe cutters, iron cutters, axes and various items believed to be used for cable theft activities, all of which were worth close to RM150,000.

"All of them are now remanded to assist the investigation and the case is being investigated according to Section 379 of the Penal Code for theft,” he said. — Bernama