Labuan police uncover duty-free island's first 'ah long' syndicate

LABUAN: In what is believed to be the first of its kind in Labuan, the police have uncovered a syndicate linked to a network of loan sharking activities in the duty-free island with the arrest of two men.
The suspected "ah long" (loan sharks) were picked up about 11.30am yesterday in an operation codenamed "Ops Vulture" during a raid downtown by the Commercial Crime Division.
Also detained were three female cohorts whose role, according to initial police investigations, might have been to lure potential customers for the syndicate whose clientele runs into hundreds of borrowers.
The five suspects, including a runner. are aged between 22 and 28.
Labuan police chief Supt Muhamad Farid Ahmad said the suspects were remanded for three days to facilitate investigations into the 'ah long' network which had reared its ugly head in Labuan for the first time.
He said the police seized RM34,133.30, 75 pieces of flyers, a bundle of identity card photocopies, 1,663 pieces of business cards, 29 borrower list books, 11 pieces of automated teller machine (ATM) cards, payment receipts, four illegal company seals, loan scheme books and money counting machine.
"Investigations have been opened under Section 5 (2) of the Moneylenders Act 1951 to focus on the alleged mastermind behind the syndicate.
"The police believe the syndicate had been operating for quite sometime based on the large number of borrowers.
"We have never received reports or complaints over the existence of illegal money lending here until we conducted our intelligence and operation," he told a press conference here today.
Muhamad Farid noted the syndicate's targeted victims were small-time entrepreneurs, and low and middle-income earners who were lured with easily approved loans.
"Such businesses thrive due to public demand. The onus does not lie solely on the authorities. If the public continue to turn to loan sharks, then the issue will never be solved," he said, adding that the police would continue to conduct operations to eradicate such activities. — Bernama