NILAI: Two men, who were active in robberies, extortions and drug trafficking were shot dead following a car chase and a shootout with the police at a car park of a condominium here.
The suspects, aged 29 and 40, were tracked down at the condominium by a team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) personnel from Bukit Aman and Negri Sembilan at about 10pm on Thursday (May 15) in an operation codenamed "Ops Api 3".
Bukit Aman deputy CID director Deputy Comm Datuk Fadil Marsus said CID personnel attempted to apprehend the suspects but they fired shots, forcing the police to return fire in self defence.
"Both men died at the scene.
"One of the suspects had a semi-auto pistol while the other had a revolver," he said.
The suspects were part of an armed robbery gang active in house break-ins as well as robbing factories and courier parcel centres in Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Perak, DCP Fadil said.
"The 29-year-old suspect had prior records for 11 criminal offences while the 40-year-old suspect had records for 76 offences," he added.
DCP Fadil said police vehicles were also damaged during the shootout but none of the police personnel were injured.
"We are not ruling out the possibility that both suspects are also members of an underworld gang based on the use of firearms.
"We also believe the condominium is one of their transit or safe houses. We have also identified other similar locations," he said.
He said the CID will continue operations to hunt down remnants of the robbery gang as well as aim to recover the stolen loot.
However, he could not elaborate further in order not to jeopardise operations to track down other suspects.
