Cops rescue 17 victims, bust human trafficking syndicate smuggling Cambodian beggars

KUALA LUMPUR: Police rescued 17 Cambodians including babies and children after busting a human trafficking syndicate that smuggled the victims into Malaysia to turn them into beggars.
The racket, police learnt was run by a Cambodian man who is a Malaysian permanent resident who works as a taxi driver.
He was aided by a two other Cambodians — a man and a woman and the third suspect, a local male taxi driver.
All four suspects were arrested by a police team from the federal anti-human trafficking unit at 3pm on Saturday.
The rescued Cambodians comprised of nine women, two men, three male children, a female child, a male baby and a female baby who were exploited and enslaved as beggars.
The raids were launched after police received a tip-off on the syndicate's activities from human rights non-governmental organisation Tenaganita days earlier.
Federal CID anti-human trafficking (D7C) assistant director SAC Rohaimi Md Isa said on Friday night, a police team had carried out surveillance activities at a night market at Taman Bukit Kuchai, Puchong where a 23-year-old disabled Cambodian man was found begging.
He said the team rescued the man and found in his possession two handphones and a RM58.
Rohaimi said on interviewing the victim police learnt that the syndicate had smuggled him by land from Cambodia and ordered him to beg daily at night markets.
"The victim was warned to raise at least RM100 a day. If he failed to do so, he will be beaten up by his caretakers. The money he received would all go to the syndicate and the victims get nothing except for food and shelter," he said.
Following the rescue of the disabled man, the police team carried out surveillance activities at a shophouse at Prima Damansara at 3pm on Saturday where they spotted seven women and five children getting off two taxis and heading into a shophouse.
Police nabbed the cabbies before rescuing the foreigners.
The raiding team also seized two taxis, handphones and RM360 from the premises.