SHAH ALAM: He contacted a loan shark in order to borrow money and was instead hired to intimidate and shame loan defaulters.
The 41-year-old man assembled a team comprising seven men and two women and went about smearing paint on property, leaving shameful notices and even locking defaulters in their own homes.
The group would strike in the wee hours of the morning while everyone was asleep and sent videos of their work to their employer.
OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Iqbal Ibrahim said police conducted a series of raids in Sungai Besi on Monday and Tuesday where the seven men and two women aged between 21 and 41 were arrested.
“During the raid, we also seized a car, a motorcycle, two cans of red paint, four bottles of red paint, paint thinner, three padlocks, three bicycle locks, some clothes, two red marker pens and other items.
“Seven of the suspects have records for crime and drug offences,” he told reporters yesterday.
Further investigations revealed that the group was put together by the 41-year-old suspect.
“The mastermind had approached a loan shark online to borrow money but the loan shark offered him a job to intimidate and shame loan defaulters.“The suspect agreed and was paid between RM300 and RM450 per job,” ACP Mohd Iqbal said, adding that the mastermind had received a total of 80 bank deposits believed to be from loan sharks to the tune of RM25,000.
It is learnt that the suspects had never actually met their employers and only communicated with them via WhatsApp.
The suspects have been remanded for four days to help with investigations.
It is also learnt that the two female suspects were hired as scouts to keep an eye on the defaulters.
