Malaysian police bust suspected Thai-linked car theft syndicate

May 6, 2011, 3:42 GMT

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian police have detained five men believed to be leaders of a syndicate responsible for stealing luxury cars and smuggling them into Thailand, a report said Friday.

The five men, aged between 27 and 48, were detained in four different states following several raids two weeks ago, said Hisan Hamzah, police chief of the central state of Selangor.

The 51 cars stolen by the syndicate in the last 12 months were believed be worth 12.6 million ringgit (4.2 million dollars).

The suspects had 'specific skills' to detect and disable tracking devices and immobilizers in the target vehicles, Hisan was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times daily.

'We believe there are more members at large,' the police chief said. 'We are confident of nabbing them soon,' he said.

He also called on border authorities to strengthen lax security checks which currently make it easy to smuggle out stolen vehicles.

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