Penang police on manhunt for 1,200 gang members in the state

BALIK PULAU, Sept 9 — Penang police are now on a manhunt to track down 1,200 gang members from 14 active gangs in the state.

Penang police chief Datuk Abd Rahim Hanafi said of the 14 triad gangs identified, nine have their own insignia while five others were without.

“The four gangs without insignia that we have identified are “Pneh”, “Ji Lam Che”,”New Cell 20”, “Sio Sam Ong” and “Ang Kim Leng”,” he said in a press conference at the Balik Pulau police headquarters today.

The gangs with insignia are Tiga Line (36 Merah), Pertiga, Geng 24, Merong Mahawangsa, 08 India, 08 Cina, 04 Cina, 04 India and another 04 India with a different insignia.

“We want the gang members to know that we have launched a massive manhunt to track them down so it is a matter of time before we get all of them,” Abd Rahim said.

“Since the launch of Ops Cantas on August 17 up till now, we have arrested 233 suspects and out of them three will be charged while 47 others are now in the midst of being charged under the Crime Prevention Act,” he added.

The police also seized 164 weapons, including four pistols, under Ops Cantas.

In the same press conference, Abd Rahim also revealed that the police had successfully busted a luxury car theft syndicate — “Estima 2” with the arrest of the mastermind behind the syndicate.

“We arrested nine suspects, seven men and two women, believed to be part of the “Estima 2” syndicate and seized RM1 million worth of luxurious and local cars following the arrest,” he said.

The syndicate were believed to be involved in the theft of 20 luxury cars in Penang, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan between last year and this year.

The syndicate’s modus operandi was to unlock a vehicle using a pin and then disable its electronic alarm system using a RM1,000 electronic device before driving off with the car, all within a span of two minutes.

“They would then change the chassis number, engine number and plate number before registering it with the Road Transport Department using old car grants of lost vehicles and then selling off the cars to local buyers at prices between RM8,000 and RM50,000 each,” he said.

The police had seized a total 12 vehicles following the arrest of the suspects, including five Mercedes-Benz, one Toyota Estima, one Toyota Velfire, one Nissan Skyline and a KTM Duke 200cc superbike.

“We also seized 52 copies of modified car grants in the operation,” he said.

The syndicate was busted after police received tipoffs from the public, leading to a check being conducted on a 27-year-old man at Kubang Semang, Bukit Mertajam on August 19 at around 12.30am.

“The man was driving a Toyota Estima which was reported stolen from the Queensbay Mall area and after that, he had led to the arrest of the other syndicate members, including the mastermind,” Abd Rahim said.

In another unrelated case, police arrested two men and one woman in another drug bust where RM30,000 worth of drugs were seized from a condominium in Jelutong.

“All three suspects have been remanded to assist in investigations until September 12,” the state police chief said.

A Heckler & Koch pistol with a bullet slug and 33 bullets were also recovered from the condominium along with various drugs such as methamphetamine, ketamin, Eramin pills, Ecstasy pills and Ecstasy powder.

“We also seized two cars, one Rolex, two laptops and RM3,200 from the scene bringing the total value of seizure to RM191,000,” he said.