MELAKA: A 13-year-old schoolboy leader of a motorcycle theft gang has been detained along with five other teenagers during a series of raids by Melaka police.
Melaka deputy police chief Senior Asst Comm Md Nazri Nawawi said the Form One student was found to be the mastermind of the syndicate that has been involved in various motorcycle thefts throughout the state since early this year.
"We have managed to solve six cases of missing motorcycles that were reported here with the arrest of the six.
"The raids were conducted between July 4 to 7 throughout the state," he said on Tues (July 16).
SAC Md Nazri said the teenagers detained are aged between 13 to 17 years with two of them are still in school.
"The other suspects were school dropouts," he said.
SAC Md Nazri said the stolen motorcycles were utilised for the gang members' personal use and their targeted machines were parked outside homes throughout the state.
He said all the suspects had no previous crime records and tested negative for drugs.
SAC Md Nazri said Melaka police formed a task force to track the suspects following the report made by a victim from Padang Temu here earlier this month after his motorcycle was stolen.
He said the suspects were detained in various locations in the state by the task force and recovered all the stolen items.
In a separate development, SAC Md Nazri said three foreigners were detained during a joint operation against secondhand dealers in the state.
He said those detained were a China national, Pakistani and Myanmarese aged between 29 to 65 years old.
SAC Md Nazri said 108 premises dealing in secondhand items were checked since the start of the operation on July 9.
He said various enforcement agencies well as officers from local councils were involved in the operation.
He added that the foreigners have been handed to the Immigration Department while the various summonses were issued to the operators of the premises by the different departments involved in the operation.
