KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 – The police have not ruled out the probability that two key members of Malaysia’s largest ‘Ah Long’ (loan shark) network could be familiar names in the political fraternity.
Initial police investigations have revealed that the two were among six people who had jointly headed the network which had international connections in drug trafficking and prostitution, among others.
The other four heads, including a datuk, are in police custody to facilitate investigations.
Bukit Aman CID director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin said preliminary investigations on some of the network heads in custody revealed a possible involvement in politics and in other crimes like drug-trafficking, prostitution and illegal businesses.
“The network is so large that it has gone overseas (overseas links) and we need time and public help to cripple it,” he told reporters here, today.
These heads are believed to have used revenue from other criminal ventures to fund and expand their illegal money-lending activities.
Yesterday, police said that four of six key players in the ‘Ah Long’ network, including a datuk, aged between 30 and 56, were arrested.
Mohd Bakri declined to comment further on the arrests. The police have set up a special team involving the federal CID and commercial crime department to track down and destroy the network, right up to its grassroots-level.
Last month, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein declared an all-out war against the ‘Ah Long’ menace and stressed that illegal money-lending activities could not be accepted or allowed to mushroom.
In an unrelated case, the police have recorded statements from several individuals, following a police report that a reporter had gatecrashed into a religious function at a church.
“We have taken statements from the complainants and later, will record a statement from the reporter, as well,” said Mohd Bakri.
On July 8, two Catholics claimed that a reporter had intruded a function at the church in Kuala Lumpur, about two months ago, to probe a claim of Muslim teens being converted at the church. – Bernama
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