‘No use pointing fingers over raid failures’
KUALA LUMPUR: Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar yesterday said it was not right for people to point fingers and blame the force whenever a raid — especially on gambling dens — yielded next to nothing.
He said such raids often involved as many as 10 agencies, and there were also “tontos” that monitored the movements of enforcement personnel.
“I do not deny that sometimes there are intelligence leaks. As everyone knows, many agencies are involved in an operation.
“It’s hard to tell who’s the mole. Besides, ‘tontos’ are always watching. These people who are involved in gambling and other vices will go all out to safeguard their activities,” he said at the
Police Training Centre in
Jalan Padang Tembak here yesterday.
He was responding to New Straits Times’ exclusive story which exposed how a police operation on five mini casinos in the Golden Triangle here on Tuesday yielded next to nothing as the operators were believed to have found out about the operation and closed their premises before the raiding party moved in.
Khalid said police had, in the past, intensified efforts to curb illegal gambling activities in the city as well as other parts of the country.
He said police seized 60,008 computers used for illegal gambling activities last year.
He said this year, 90,324 of such machines had been seized.
“This shows we are serious in curbing this illegal gambling problem,” he said, adding Police hauling away gambling machines seized during a raid in Plaza Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, yesterday. Pic by Mohamad Shahril Badri Saali police would continue acting against gambling syndicates.
“To say that no action taken is being taken on illegal gambling dens is absurd.
“There’s also no use in playing the blame game. Police will continue to carry raids whenever necessary,” he said.
Earlier, Khalid launched the Samsung Smart Library at the training centre.
Samsung Malaysia Electronics contributed more than 40 gadgets including tablets and a wide screen television to be used in the library.