KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has arrested 10 policemen and a police retiree for allegedly taking bribes to protect drug-related offenders between 2014 and 2018.
Officers from the anti-graft agency picked up the suspects, between 26 and 55 years of age, from the police district headquarters where they served between 2pm and 8pm yesterday.
They were remanded for a week to facilitate investigations. Magistrate Stephanie Sherron Abbie allowed the remand order, which ends on Oct 14, after hearing the application in chambers.
The suspects comprised nine policemen from Kota Belud and two more from Beluran and Kota Kinabalu. A 12th suspect, who previously served in Kota Belud as well, was picked up in Sibu and processed by MACC there.
All the suspects had served with the Kota Belud anti-narcotics department.
MACC prosecuting officer Faliq Basiruddin said the policemen allegedly took money from offenders, including drug addicts and dealers, in exchange for looking the other way. He said the highest ranked suspect was an inspector.
“The bribes were probably enticements for them not to arrest the offenders, but we are still looking into this,” he told reporters.
“The transaction amount from 2014, which includes cash and bank transactions, reaches tens of thousands of ringgit. We are still calculating for each suspect.”
He added that MACC was in the midst of locating witnesses while waiting for confirmation from the bank on the transactions made.
He said the suspects were paid off daily, weekly or monthly, with the last transaction made in June.
He said a number of them had since moved on to other departments while some were in charge of the anti-narcotics departments in their respective districts. -FMT
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