Hasnan (third left) and his officers show some of the ransom money amounting to RM175,400 and other items recovered from the suspects during a press conference. — Bernama photo
IPOH: Twelve individuals including the mastermind and three women believed to be involved in the kidnapping of a teenage boy in Penang on Sept 2 have been arrested.
Perak police chief Datuk Hasnan Hassan said all the suspects, aged between 17 and 36, were detained during eight separate raids around Penang and Johor Bahru on Sept 5.
He said the arrests were made following a report lodged by the victim’s 43-year-old father at the Taiping district police headquarters a day after the incident.
“The victim’s father initially received a telephone call from one of the suspects who said his son had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom of RM3 million and threatened to harm or kill the victim if he failed to meet that demand.
“After some negotiations with the kidnappers over the phone, the ransom amount was reduced to RM300,000.
On Sept 5 at about 8.30am, the victim’s father was instructed to go to Johor Bahru to hand over the money.
“After the victim’s father handed over the ransom, the police managed to arrest eight suspects through six separate raids in several locations in Johor Bahru,” he told a press conference at the Perak Police Contingent Headquarters here yesterday.
Hasnan said police also detained two suspects who were with the 17-year-old victim in a car.
Police later arrested two suspects in Butterworth, Penang, he said.
He said police seized RM175,400 cash, three cars and a motorcycle in the raids.
Five of the 12 suspects have been released on police bail while the rest are being detained.
“The police are still tracing the remaining ransom money. This is a great success for the police because they managed to arrest all the suspects within days and at the same time the victim was also rescued unharmed,” he said. — Bernama