Cops smash ‘violent’ birds nest robbery gang
SIBU: Police have smashed a notorious gang involved in robbing birds nest farms with the arrest of nine members following a sixmonth operation.
State CID chief Datuk Dev Kumar said the suspects, aged between 21 and 31, were nabbed at five locations here early yesterday morning by a taskforce from the state police headquarters in Kuching.
“The suspects were caught at a karaoke lounge in Lorong Ek Dee, a double- storey shophouse at Lorong Chengal 5, the lower floor of a shophouse at Jalan Jerwit Barat, an unnumbered house at Jalan Rambutan and a single- storey house at Jalan Kapor.
“The nine arrested included the leader of the gang, a 31-yearold from Mukah. A 10th suspect – a bird’s nest exporter – was also arrested at his house at Jalan Kapor,” he said in a statement yesterday.
According to Dev Kumar, the gang is believed to be responsible for robbing bird’s nest farms in Sibu, Mukah, Tatau, Matu Daro, Sarikei, Saratok and Betong, resulting in losses totalling RM1 million.
“Armed with a shotgun and machetes, their modus operandi was to break into a targeted farm, attack and tie up the workers, before fleeing with the birds nest.
“As a result of the arrests, police seized various weapons such as machetes, sickles, cockspurs, spears, and shotgun cartridges, along with housebreaking tools, 20 mobile phones and nearly one kilogramme of processed birds nest.”
He said the gang is also believed to be responsible for a host of other crimes, namely robbing a crane in Bintulu in September 2017; robbing a birds nest farm in Oya in December 2017; stealing an excavator pump in Mukah in January this year, robbing birds nest farms in Pusa, Sibujaya and Tatau in February this year, as well as those in Kabong, Jakar, Tatau, Balingian and Matu last month; and an attempted robbery at a birds nest farm in Sarikei this month.
“We first set our sights on this gang after they robbed a crane worth RM200,000 at a brick factory in Bintulu, during which a worker was bound and driven off before being flung from the vehicle at Sebauh junction,” said Dev Kumar.
On the arrest of the birds nest exporters, he said the 52-year- old suspect would purchase the stolen commodity from the suspects at RM2,000 per kilogramme before processing it at his house for export to China.
All 10 suspects are scheduled to be brought to court here today for a remand application.
“I congratulate all those involved in the operation to take down this violent criminal gang after having tracked them for the past six months,” said Dev Kumar, adding the taskforce was led by state CID deputy chief (Operations) ACP Abdul Razak Mohammad, state D9 officer-in- charge Supt Zulfikar Ghazali, and state D8 officer-in-charge ASP Shuib Abdul Samat.