Police bust four Ah Long syndicates with arrest of 29 in Penang, Perak - Bukit Aman

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Police busted four unlicensed money-lending syndicates (Ah Longs) offering loans with high interest rates after detaining 29 individuals, including a woman, in a series of 12 raids in Penang and Perak on Thursday.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) director Datuk Zainuddin Yaacob said that acting on information and intelligence, the Bukit Aman JSJK in collaboration with the Penang JSJK raided 12 locations in Seberang Perai Tengah and Seberang Perai Utara in Penang and in Kerian, Perak from 6 am to 10 am before detaining the 29 people, aged 21 to 54.

"As a result, the police managed to bust four Ah Long syndicates -- Ahboy, Anson, Alvin and Ahhow -- which offered illegal loans via online to borrowers such as traders, government employees and those in the private sector nationwide.

"Their modus operandi is to advertise money-lending offers on social media applications such as Facebook, WeChat and Whatsapp, with the loan interest rate being 10 per cent to 15 per cent for a period of one week," he told a press conference, here, yesterday.

He said they would then threaten borrowers who failed to pay their debts by turning up at the borrowers' homes or workplaces as well as committing acts of violence on the borrowers' property.

Zainuddin said apart from that, the syndicates would also contact borrowers who failed to repay the loans and offer them new loans to settle previous debts and in that way the victims would continue to be indebted to the lenders and would have to make multiple payments.

He said the initial investigation found that the four syndicates had been carrying out such activities since 2017 and offered loans ranging from RM1,000 to millions of ringgit involving thousands of borrowers nationwide.

Seized in the raids were 119 cheques from various banks, 68 mobile phones, 27 bank cards, various loan documents, jewellery, 10 vehicles and cash amounting to RM98,718 as well as a machete believed to be used to threaten borrowers.

Meanwhile, he said that from the beginning of this year until yesterday, his team had investigated 291 cases related to Ah Long activities involving loans amounting to RM1.5 million.

-- BERNAMA