SUNGAI BULOH, April 15 — Police have solved 11 lorry theft cases with estimated losses worth RM605,000 when they arrested 10 members of the 'Esvaran Gang' in Negri Sembilan and Johor, in an operation from April 5 to 10.

All the local men, aged between 28 and 62, were arrested through an operation codenamed ‘Op Lejang Lori’.

Selangor police chief Datuk Arjunaidi Mohamed said the syndicate was masterminded by a 47-year-old local man who planned and hired three other individuals to steal lorries around Selangor.

He said acting on information and intelligence, police arrested three men at Senawang toll plaza in Seremban and on questioning, took the police to a workshop in Tongkang Pechah, Batu Pahat and arrested six men and a woman.

"The modus operandi of this syndicate is to steal a lorry in Selangor and then sell it to a middleman entrusted to send it to a workshop in Tongkang Pechah before it is dismantled by the suspect," he told a press conference at the Sungai Buloh district police headquarters, here today.

According to him, payment for the middleman for each lorry delivered is around RM3,000 to RM5,000.

Arjunaidi said through the raid at the workshop, the police seized 20 lorries whose components were dismantled as well as nine engines whose engine numbers and chassis numbers were erased, believed to be for sale as spare parts.

"The police also seized a lorry at a different premises in Jalan Kluang, Batu Pahat," he said.

Arjunaidi said the scratches on the engine and components of the lorry found it was stolen from seven reported losses lodged in Selangor.

"Four of the 10 suspects arrested have previous criminal and drug-related records and the police are still tracking down two more suspects in the case, namely a man known as Sivakumar who acted as a middleman and a Bangladeshi known as Aktakur@Panjang," he said. — Bernama