COPS CLOSE IN ON M-CYCLE THEFT GANG
Penang police arrest five gang members
PENANG police are hot on the heels of a motorcycle theft gang known as “Pak Tam”. Northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Anuar Omar said police arrested five of its members, aged between 19 and 21, recently but many members of the gang were at large.
“This is a notorious motorcycle theft gang. The members who were arrested led us to two motorcycle frames behind a house in Tasek Gelugor and 45 motorcy- cle frames in Sungai Kereh and Sungai Jarak Tasek Gelugor,” he said.
He said police had traced eight of the motorcycle frames to previous theft cases and were investigating the remaining 39 frames.
“The gang had scrapped the chassis numbers of the motorcycles, making identification difficult,” he said.
He said one of the gang members arrested had a previous motorcycle theft record and admitted to stealing a few motorcycles with another gang member since January.
“One of the men is a middleman in the sale and purchase of stolen motorcycles and the other two were buyers.
“They removed the motorcycles’ spare parts before the motorcycles were sold,” he said, adding that three of the suspects were unemployed, while the other two worked in factories.
He said police also crippled another motorcycle theft gang known as “Syahir”.
“This is a two-member gang. The two men, aged 21 and 23, were arrested at their homes in Tasek Gelugor.
“The suspects, both of whom work in factories, admitted to stealing motorcycles at the northeast district since last month and led us to six motorcycle frames dumped in Sungai Datuk Keramat in Tasek Gelugor.”
He said three of the motorcycle frames had been traced to previous motorcycle theft cases and three more were being analysed.
He added these gangs often stole in one district and took the vehicles to another district where they dismantled the spare parts and dumped the frames.