Loan syndicate busted (Updated)

KUALA LUMPUR: Police busted the biggest Ah Long syndicate in Johor with the arrest of 26 suspects, including the mastermind and seizure of RM2.04 million in cash and vehicles in a series of raids held in southern Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh on Wednesday.
The team from Bukit Aman commercial investigation department recovered from the suspects aged between 17 and 51 years old were 21 vehicles including several luxury cars RM1.48 million, RM416,050 in cash and 18 women's luxury handbags worth some RM150,000.
Other items recovered were 12 computers, 52 mobile phones, 83 ATM cards, nine parang, nine samurai swords, 17 bank account books, six cheque books and a lorry full of Ah Long posters.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Commissioner Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said those arrested were 23 men and three women, including a woman from Vietnam.
"The suspects are aged between 17 and 51 and they were arrested in multiple raids conducted in both states between 10am on Wednesday and 4am today (Thursday)," Acryl Sani said in a statement today.
"As of now, about 26 cases have been reported and seven out of them involve violence and splashing paint cases," he said.
The loan shark syndicate bust was also confirmed by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in a post on his Twitter account.
Khalid congratulated the Bukit Aman CCID for the success.
Meanwhile in KULAI, Johor deputy police chief Datuk Mohd Zakaria Ahmad said the syndicate had been active for the past 13 years.
"We arrested the mastermind in Kulai while in the midst of handling a land purchasing issue," he told reporters at the Kulai police district headquarters here today.
Mohd Zakaria said the syndicate members thought they were too strong for the police to deal with but "we managed to track them down and detained them".
Initial police investigations, he said, revealed that the syndicate's daily turnover was about RM30,000 and monthly about RM1 million.
"The syndicate camouflaged their activity by showing their earnings coming from buying and selling properties," he said, adding that they charged an interest rate of between 10% and 15% for a minimum loan of RM1,000 and if the victim failed to pay, he/she is taken to a house where they are interrogated and assaulted.
On the suspects, he said all belonged to a secret society.
The suspects are remanded for four days pending investigations.
The case is being investigated under Section 5(2) of the Moneylenders Act 1952, Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (POCA) and Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.