Lahad Datu police bust armed robbery gang

LAHAD DATU: The police busted an armed robbery gang about four hours after they robbed a premises selling clothes in Bandar Tabanak, yesterday.

Lahad Datu district police chief ACP Hamzah Ahmad said the group, which comprised two men and woman aged between 24 and 30 were arrested at 2.30pm in the 'Ops Tutup' operation at Jalan Kunak.

"With quick action and information from the public, (and) through the assistance of policemen from the Kunak district police headquarters, (we) arrested the suspects at the location, and confiscated some stolen items," he told a press conference at the Lahad Datu district police headquarters here today.

Hamzah said in the 10.45am incident yesterday, an employee at the premises was approached by two men and one of them pointed a pistol towards the victim and took a handbag including the victim's mobile phone, before fleeing the scene.

"Following the incident, the victim filed a report and due to the quick action of providing information, police managed to track down and arrest three suspects at the location concerned.
"The police recovered all the items that were robbed by them and also seized a Pietro Beretta pistol along with an empty bullet magazine," he said.

He said further investigations found that the suspects possessed previous robbery-related criminal records.

All the suspects have been remanded for a week beginning today to help investigations. – Bernama