GEORGE TOWN, Nov 23 — The Penang police claimed they have crippled a gang where its members impersonated as policemen before robbing their victims with the arrest of eight Filipinos and a local man in a raid at Jalan Penang here last November 15.

State police chief Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said the Filipinos, including a woman, and the local man, all aged between 30 and 50, were arrested in a special operation conducted by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Penang police contingent and the Timur Laut district police.

"Following the arrests, police confiscated 13 mobile phones of various brands, 33 bank cards, clothing, passports, cash of RM6,265 and 5,840 pesos and two rented cars,” he told a press conference here today.

He said preliminary investigations showed that the modus operandi used by the gang was for its members to impersonate police officers and then approached their victims, normally foreigners, on the pretext of arresting them for certain offences, and then robbing them.

Mohd Shuhaily said that based on police investigations, the gang was involved in at least seven cases of impersonating policemen to commit robbery in Penang, Kuala Lumpur (two cases) and Melaka (one case) involving losses amounting to RM42,600.

He said checks found that the local man had two previous criminal records and the Filipinos were his friends.

All of them are in remand for 10 days for investigations under Sections 395 and 170 of the Penal Code, for gang robbery and personating a public servant, respectively. — Bernama