KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31 — With no end in sight yet to the ongoing Ops Cantas crackdown on suspected criminals, gang members here are laying low and staying as much out of trouble as possible for now.
In an interview published in The Star today, a former gang member and Emergency Ordinance (EO) detainee said the underworld is now waiting in bated breath for the police to withdraw their dragnet, and has slowed or stopped operating entirely until this happens.
“I asked some of my friends who are still in the gangs to join me for a drink on Merdeka Day, but they said they had to remain hidden for a while.
“They fear being stopped at roadblocks and getting locked up. They don’t want to confront the police because they know they can’t win,” the ex-gang member was quoted as saying.
The daily cited another source in the Klang Valley as echoing the same observation.
According to another source in Klang Valley, there is zero gang-related activity now.
“Everyone linked to gangs and triads seems to have disappeared. Normally gang members can be seen hanging out regularly in certain places, but they’re all not there anymore,” the source was quoted as saying.
He added that some gang members have also moved in with their families, in hopes of riding out the widespread crackdown without drawing suspicion.
But despite the apparent slowing down of gangland crimes since Ops Cantas was launched on August 19, Bukit Aman gambling, vice and secret societies division chief SAC Datuk Jalil Hassan said the operation will not be called off as yet.
“The gangs are lying low but we will not stop until we are satisfied that they have been dealt with,” he was quoted as saying.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said he had instructed the police to proceed with Ops Cantas, saying the crackdown was something Malaysians desired.
He said the government’s release of information on members in 49 secret societies nationwide was not a “witch hunt” but marked its commitment to cut the rising crime rate.
The Home Ministry had released a list of some 40,313 people it identified to be members of 49 organisations declared illegal.
“If we want to live in a country that is free from fear, then we have to fight crime, especially organised crime. It is not a witch hunt. It is (an action) desired by the people.
“In fact, I have told the police that the action must be continuous. It is a relentless fight against crime,” Najib was quoted as saying by The Star.
Following an alarming rise in shootings and gun violence, police launched a nationwide crackdown earlier this month, dubbed “Ops Cantas”, in a bid to curtail the apparent surge.
The operation has led to the arrest of over 2,000 individuals so far, as the police dusted off the Prevention of Crime Acts 1959 that allows for arrests without warrants and detention without trial in the efforts to rein in what they allege to be an increase in gangland activity following the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance in 2011.
