KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 — A police taskforce formed to combat snatch thefts and muggings in the city has solved 39 cases in the space of two months.

City police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim said an operation dubbed ‘Op Rentap Khas’ spearheaded by the taskforce to eradicate street crimes has been performing well since its inception late December.

“The operation which was conducted from January 22 to January 31 saw 75 motorcycles and 90 individuals checked.

“Out of the total searched, we picked up six wanted suspects and three snatch theft suspects aged between 20 and 25,” he said.

Mazlan said police were able to solve 18 cases of snatch theft involving tourists in the Klang Valley with the trio’s arrest.

He said the taskforce recorded a total of 31 cases compared to 42 cases recorded 10 days earlier, a decrease of 26.1 per cent.

“The taskforce will continue to conduct checks before, during and after the Chinese New Year festival.

“We want to show that we are not giving criminals the opportunity to commit crime during the holiday period,” he said.

Meanwhile, the same taskforce also successfully crippled a group of robbers on January 26.

Mazlan said four suspects of the Abang Fahmi gang were arrested within an hour of robbing a victim of his gold necklace using a samurai sword in Jalan Lang Kuning, Kepong.

Taskforce personnel who were on patrol in Chow Kit spotted the group acting suspiciously near a pawnshop before making their move to detain them around 4.35pm.

Investigators subsequently confiscated eight mobile phones, a samurai sword and two motorcycles used during the incident.

Initial investigations showed the suspects targeted their victims at random and charged at them with the sword before forcing them to hand over their belongings.

The suspects aged between 18 and 29 subsequently confessed to the gold necklace robbery when questioned by police.

“With their arrests, we have managed to solve 21 cases involving the gang whose crime spree spanned the city and Ampang,” he said.

He urged the public to alert the police about any information pertaining to such incidents and advised people not to get distracted when they are out on the street.