KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — Seventeen individuals, including seven civil servants from a Land and Mines Office in Selangor have been arrested to assist investigations into illegal land transfer activities.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the individuals, aged between 33 and 57, are being investigated.

He said preliminary investigations suggest that the activities were carried out by a syndicate with the involvement of "insiders” at the office.

"Initial findings revealed that the syndicate hired ‘insiders’ to exploit the system by erasing and removing records related to property transfers.

"We are conducting further investigations to identify others involved in this crime,” he said during a press conference at the Bukit Aman CCID office here today.

Elaborating, Ramli said such crimes would not be possible without the involvement of insiders, urging the public not to collude with the syndicate.

"In some cases, the landowners’ names were found missing from ownership records when checked at the land office. The transfer of ownership is a highly complex process and will not happen arbitrarily,” he said.

Earlier, the media reported that 17 individuals were detained in separate arrests since September for allegedly being part of a cartel involved in transferring land ownership.

So far, seven cases are being investigated involving 21 acres (over 9.4 hectares) of land, with losses totalling RM7.1 million. — Bernama