SHAH ALAM, March 12 — Police have crippled a robbery syndicate which is believed to have been active for at least 15 years, following the arrests of 12 of its members.

The gang was led by a 27-year-old man with 22 criminal records, mostly for robbery, and was wanted by police.

Selangor CID Chief Datuk Mohd Adnan Abdullah said the mastermind had been living a life of crime since he was a teenager.

“He was influenced to join criminal activities at a young age by his family and peers, which eventually escalated into him leading this syndicate of robbers,” he said.

Mohd Adnan said the arrests were made following the hijacking of a trailer in Meru, Klang, on January 31.

In the 4am incident, the driver and co-driver of the trailer, who were in their 20s, were resting in their vehicle at a hypermarket parking lot when they were set upon by several men wielding parang.

“The robbers threatened them with their weapons, before tying up and bundling them into their cars,” Mohd Adnan said.

He said the robbers’ other accomplices then drove off in the 40-tonne trailer, which was loaded with RM40,000 worth of food, cosmetics and electrical products.

The victims were later dropped off in Selayang, where they lodged a police report.

He said it was revealed the items in the container were sold to a single person, who is being tracked down by police. 

“The syndicate operated by monitoring the movement of trailer drivers, and preyed on the ones they can easily overpower,” he said.  

Items such as pulley cables, crowbars, hammers, machetes, mobile phones and computers were seized from the suspects.

Police are investigating if they had tapped into phone lines using laptops.

With the arrests, at least 10 robbery cases within Selangor were solved, said Mohd Adnan.

The suspects, aged 24 to 52, consisted of 10 local men, a local and an Indonesian woman were arrested  in Gombak, Sri Damansara, Sungai Buloh, and Rawang between February 2 and Thursday.

Apart from the mastermind, two of the suspects also had criminal records, including one recently released convict.

“The stolen trailer was apparently brought to a location in Rawang, where it was cannibalised and its parts sold to dealers in the same area,” Mohd Adnan said.

“We believe the syndicate had ready buyers for the items in the container.”