Police bust syndicate stealing frozen meat

 

Police have busted a syndicate involved in stealing frozen meat, following the arrest of four men in Senai, Johor yesterday and seizure of 395 boxes of frozen mutton and buffalo meat stolen from a shop in Taman Inderawasih. -Pic courtesy of PDRM

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Police have busted a syndicate involved in stealing frozen meat, following the arrest of four men in Senai, Johor yesterday and seizure of 395 boxes of frozen mutton and buffalo meat stolen from a shop in Taman Inderawasih, here, recently.

Seberang Perai Tengah district police chief Assistant Commissioner Shafee Abd Samad said four men, aged between 27 and 37, were detained at 2.40pm yesterday. A Mitsubishi lorry was also seized at the parking area of a petrol station at the North-South Expressway (south-bound) in Senai.

"Police received a report from a frozen meat trader that his premises had been broken into on April 4, with the main door pried open and the freezers containing mutton and buffalo meat worth RM250,000 empty when he arrived there at 9.30 am.

"Based on information and the investigation, we arrested four men including the leader, aged 32, and they admitted to coming from Johor to steal frozen meat from the shops here," he said when contacted today.

Shafee said the group admitted to coming to the north to steal frozen meat to avoid detection by the police in Johor as they had been caught a number of times for committing the same offence.

He said all detained had a criminal record including drugs offences. Police also seized five mobile phones and the tools used to break into premises.

The case is being investigated under Section 457 of the Penal Code. Police do not dismiss the possibility of the group also involved in stealing frozen meat from a number of premises in other places including Kulim, Kedah.

Meanwhile in Butterworth, Seberang Perai Utara district police chief, Assistant Commissioner Noorzainy Mohd Noor said since early this year, police had cut the electricity supply of 55 business premises that allowed the operations of illegal 4D and lottery.

He said the enforcement action against these premises that included coffee shops, mobile phone shops and retail outlets was taken under Section 20 of the Common Gaming Houses Act 1963.

There were also those who operated from vehicles and back lane of shops, he added. – Bernama