PETALING JAYA, Feb 5 — Police investigations have revealed that slick Latin American robbers are behind the clean robbery at a jewellery store in 1 Utama shopping complex during the Chinese New Year holiday stretch.

Selangor deputy police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Jaafar said investigations suggest the suspects could be the notorious Latin American robbers who made headlines in 2012 and last year for their involvement in a string of automated teller machine thefts in the country. 

Abdul Rahim said police have leads that the perfect crime was carried out by four Latin American suspects. 

“Based on statements that were recorded from witnesses and the CCTV footage taken from the mall, it clearly indicates the suspects are Latin Americans,” he said.

Abdul Rahim said the manner the robbery was executed bore the resemblance of the previous cases linked to the Latin American gang.  

“It was a well-planned robbery. The four had caused a power cut, resulting in a blackout in the mall for an hour on Sunday night. We believe they made their entry into the mall then,” Abdul Rahim said.

He also said the suspects were experienced robbers as they managed to crack a highly sophisticated security alarm system. 

“They also successfully disabled the motion sensor and alarm before gaining access into the premise.”

He said, to clear their tracks, the suspects also removed CCTV footage from the premise when they made their escape.

The suspects would have had to be in the premise for at least five to 10 hours. 

Security guards on duty in the mall patrolled the building when the electricity went off, but they did not find anything suspicious.

“The suspects could have made an exit after they made sure that there were no security guards around.”

Abdul Rahim said police are also investigating if it was an inside job.

On Monday, the store’s employees came in at 10am to find two of the three safes containing jewellery had been broken into.

Investigations at the scene showed the safes, stored in a room at the back of the store, was broken into with an oxyacetylene torch which is used to melt safe doors.

Abdul Rahim said police were still calculating the actual losses. However, the store manger claimed that the losses were close to RM10 million.