11 charged with being members of organised crime gang
KOTA KINABALU: A businessman and 10 others were charged in the Sessions Court here on with being members of the organised crime group ‘Geng Upik’ between 2015 and last year.
However, no pleas were recorded from them after the charges were read out before Judge Noor Hafizah Mohd Salim.
The accused are businessman Datuk Maslan Sani, 41; Rahman Burijin, 44; Jaisalfian Jaineh@ Zaini, 45; Mohd Fauzie Rablin, 33; Shahlan Shah Abdul Samad, 37; Nelson Yen Yee Chung, 51; Mohd Faridzul Asmahadi, 31; Fazrul Bahar, 32; Alkan Abraham, 35; Mazlan Mahmud, 49; Mahathir Jibarail, 49.
Maslan, Shahlan and Alkan were charged with committing the offence in 2015; Rahman, Jaisalfian, Mazlan and Mahathir in 2018; Mohd Faridzul and Fazrul in 2020; Mohd Fauzie in 2022 and Nelson last year.
All the accused were charged with being members of the organised crime group in Kota Kinabalu here under Section 130V(1) of the Penal Code, which is punishable with a jail term of between five years and 20 years.
Noor Hafizah set March 1 for mention and no bail was allowed.
Lawyer Muhamad Amirul Amin represented Jaisalfian; Sylyester Kuan represented Mohd Fauzie while Shahlan Jufri and Mohd Luqman Syazwan Zabidi represented Shahlan Shah, Mohd Faridzul and Fazrul.
The others were not represented.
Mahathir told the Sessions Court here that he is unable to afford to hire a lawyer to represent him.
The accused said this when asked if he wanted a lawyer to represent him.
“I can’t afford a lawyer,” he said in the dock before the charges were read out to him.
Maslan was also unrepresented when the charges were read out in the same court.
However, he told the court that a lawyer represented him when he was in Kuala Lumpur.
The proceedings went ahead with the charges read to him without a lawyer present.
Maslan told the court that he understood the charges.
The prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutors Datuk Nazran Mohd Sham, Siti Hajah Mat Radzi and Nur Ainaa Ridzwan.
On December 26, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay announced that the police had smashed Sabah’s biggest drug ring with the arrest of a Datuk, who is also the patron of a non-governmental organisation, and 10 syndicate members in a special operation between the Bukit Aman Narcotics department and the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom).
Investigations revealed that the syndicate which has been active since 2015 is the biggest drug syndicate in Sabah and has an international and local distribution network.
A 44-year old enforcement officer who is the transporter for the syndicate, a site supervisor and a managing director of a restaurant chain who managed the financial aspects of the syndicate were also held.
Ayob said the syndicate obtained meth supplies from neighbouring countries in the Peninsula and smuggled to Sabah through drug mules using commercial airlines and sea cargo shipments.
The drug supplies will be stored in Sabah before being distributed to dealers before being smuggled to buyers in Indonesia and the Philippines.