Luxury vehicle theft syndicate crippled with arrest of 13

KUALA LUMPUR: A syndicate specialising in stealing luxury vehicles in the Klang Valley has been crippled with the arrest of 13 people including two foreign women in a series of raids since May 1, police said today.

Kuala Lumpur police deputy chief Datuk Yong Lei Choo said members of the 'King Gang', aged between 24 and 54, were rounded up in Kelantan, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

She said five luxury vehicles including a Toyota Hilux, an Alphard and a Toyota Fortuner, worth about RM1 million in total, were also seized in the operations.

"The syndicate has been active since 2018, targeting parked luxury vehicles by copying the frequency of their keys.

"They also used a jammer which caused the GPS system to malfunction to thwart efforts to detect the (stolen) vehicles.

POLICE-VEHICLE 2 (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR

"The vehicles were then taken to Kelantan by syndicate members before being smuggled to a neighbouring country through illegal routes and their members' network,'' she told a media conference at the Sentul district police headquarters here today.

Yong said investigations found that a syndicate member received RM2,500 for every luxury vehicle stolen, which would then be sold in the neighbouring country at RM35,000.

She said with these arrests, police have solved 62 cases of theft of luxury vehicles worth RM6.2 million.

All the suspects, who did not have any criminal records, have been remanded for further investigations, she added.

-- BERNAMA