ISKANDAR PUTERI: Two local men have been arrested for posing as Immigration officers and extorting a foreign worker of RM1,600.
Iskandar Puteri OCPD Asst Comm M Kumarasan said the suspects, aged 40 and 41, were detained at 12.20am on Sunday (March 8) at Taman Nusa Bestari in Skudai.
"We received a report at around 9pm that day from a 28-year-old Bangladeshi man that his 23-year-old brother was apprehended by bogus immigration officers," he said in a statement on Friday (March 13).
"The victim told his brother that the two suspects demanded RM1,600 for his release."
He said initial investigations revealed that one suspect has crime and drug-related offences on his record, although both men tested negative for drugs at the time of their arrest.
ACP Kumarasan said police also seized a motorcycle, two walkie-talkie sets, nine mobile phones, two bags, a photocopy of the victim’s passport and RM80 in cash.
"The investigation papers have been referred to the prosecution recommending that the suspects are charged under Section 419 (cheating by personation) of the Penal Code," he said.
ACP Kumarasan advised employers to remind their foreign workers to be vigilant against such crimes and to lodge police reports immediately.
Anyone with information on extortion or blackmail involving foreign workers can call the Iskandar Puteri district police headquarters control centre at 07-511 3622 or 07-511 4488 (hotline), he added.
