JOHOR BARU: They were paid RM800 per job, which included tossing Molotov cocktails and splashing red paint at the houses of people who “defaulted” on their payments to ah long.
Most of their victims were Malaysians working in Singapore who responded to advertisements on social media offering loans of between RM1,000 and RM50,000 at an interest rate of 20% to 50%, police investigations have found.
The police recently caught up with the illegal activities of these henchmen with the arrest of eight of them in Kuala Lumpur.
Johor police chief Comm Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat said three men and two women including a Vietnamese national, aged between 27 and 68, were nabbed on Dec 29.
Three more male suspects, aged between 28 and 37, were picked up on Jan 4.
“The suspects were working for a loan shark syndicate and based on our investigations, they had been involved in 21 arson and splashing of red paint cases in Johor, as well as two other cases in Kuala Lumpur and Melaka.
“The syndicate hired these suspects to threaten borrowers who had failed to make payments by throwing Molotov cocktails and splashing red paint on their homes,” said Comm Kamarul Zaman.
He revealed that these henchmen would come down to Johor to carry out their criminal acts and pocketed RM800 per job.
“The suspects would record their actions and send the videos to their boss to get the payment.
“Each of them had at least four jobs per night and had been targeting victims in Iskandar Puteri, Batu Pahat, Kluang, Muar and Tangkak,” he told a press conference at the state police headquarters here yesterday.
Comm Kamarul Zaman said that besides getting paid for making threats, these suspects, who had been active since last October, would also get a 10% commission for acting as a mule for the loan sharks during every transaction.
“We will visit our Singapore counterparts next week to figure out the best way to deal with these types of cases and to find out if any other syndicate members are still on the loose,” he added.
He also said the police had seized RM4,649 in cash, various types of clothing, two vehicles, seven mobile phones and a document containing the victims’ home addresses from the suspects.
The group is under remand until tomorrow to help in investigations.
The case is being probed under three sections of the Penal Code: Section 427 for committing mischief, Section 435 for mischief by fire and Section 436 for mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy property.
