CCID cripples foreign con syndicate

KUCHING: A foreign con syndicate was crippled by Padawan District Police Commercial Crime and Investigations Department ( CCID) duing a raid in a house at Lorong Stampin Tengah with the arrest of two men and three women on Dec 13.

The CCID team headed by Inspector Fakhri Ismail acted on a police report lodged by their latest victim, tracking down and arresting the suspects within four hours.

“Police also seized various amounts of currencies and jewellery from the suspects,” Padawan District Police deputy chief DSP Merbin Lisa told a press conference at their headquarters yesterday.

The currencies seized comprise RM6,618, Indonesian Rupiah) 1,760,000, HK$ 610; (Chinese Yuan) CNY 1,150 and Brunei $ 2.

Also seized from the suspects were a multi-purpose vehicle, two Indonesian passports, three China passports, five gold rings, three pairs of gold earrings, four gold lockets, three gold necklaces, two gold bracelets and eight handphones.

The victim, a elderly woman from Siburan, had met the con artists in Siburan town when she was about to finish grocery shopping around 9.10am on Dec 11.

She was first approached by one of the female con artists who broke the ice by saying she was looking for a man in the area.

They were joined by two other female con artists who also wanted to meet the man.

During the brief encounter, the three con artists warned that the victim’s family would face a string of bad luck, starting with her son’s accident at midnight on Dec 12.

Merbin said after creating panic in their victim, the con artists offered to help her break the bad luck by performing a cleansing ritual which called for payment and offerings.

“Moments later, a multi-purpose vehicle driven by a man arrived at Siburan town to bring the con artists and the victim back to her home where she was told to pay them RM1,000 as down payment for the healing ritual,” he added.

After handing the money to the con artists at her home, the victim was instructed to withdraw money from her fixed deposit account which had RM4,091.94.

The victim’s money and jewellery were packed in a plastic bag for the purported cleansing ritual. The victim was told not to open the plastic bag for three days.

But unknown to the victim, the con artists had switched the original plastic bag with a similar one containing two bottles of mineral water and newspaper cutting. “The victim said she lost around RM13,091.94 to the con artists,” Merbin said.

The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property. If found guilty, the offenders could be jailed from one to 10 years with whipping and a fine.