PETALING JAYA, Sept 25 — A local man allegedly involved with a human trafficking syndicate was shot dead by police yesterday during a special operation by an enforcement team from Bukit Aman.

Selangor police chief Datuk Noor Azam Jamaludin said the man, aged 30, was fatally shot while the team had been carrying out the operations in Puchong.

“Police also detained nine Myanmar nationals believed to have been smuggled by the suspect into the country,” Noor Azam said during a press conference held at the Selangor police headquarters this morning.  

He said the police team had trailed the man and his Perodua Alza from Kelantan after receiving information that he was transferring the illegal immigrants to an undisclosed location.

“The police team decided to make an arrest when the suspect stopped at Jalan Pusat Bandar, Puchong.

“The officers blocked the suspect’s car, but that did not stop him as he attempted to ram into one of the policemen. The police had no choice but to open fire and the suspect was shot dead,” he said.

Noor Azam said the eight Myanmar national were found hidden inside the vehicle.

“All passenger seats in the vehicle were removed to make space to hide the illegal immigrants.”

Initial investigations showed that the man had stopped at Puchong to meet up with another Myanmar national, believed to be a middleman in the smuggling operations, who was also arrested.

Noor Azam said a background check on the man killed showed he had 11 previous criminal records for drugs, theft, robbery and extortion.

This is the third police shooting in the state this month.

On September 15, three robbers from the same gang were killed after a 7km high-speed chase and shoot-out with police in Batu Arang, Rawang.

On Monday, four armed men died in a shoot-out with police at the car park of a condominium in Cyberjaya, several hours after carrying out a heist in Cheras.

Noor Azam acknowledged that this was the third such incident this month alone, but stressed that police were only doing their job to safeguard the community.

“We are not trigger happy, we have a standard operating procedure (SOP) and we adhere to it.

“My officers follow the SOP’s at all times and we ourselves will take action if we find that our men have not followed the SOPs,” he said.

Noor Azam said the officers involved had no choice but to take used deadly force as their safety had been at risk.

“The suspects we are dealing with are those who are armed and dangerous. The Rawang shooting suspects were involved in 70 robbery cases and in some cases, the victims were seriously harmed,” he said.