KUALA LUMPUR: It was the end of the reign of terror for a notorious gang responsible for a string of serious crimes after it was crippled by federal police last month with the arrest of a dozen of its members.
Among others, the gang was involved in the attempted murder of the driver of former attorney-general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail in 2017.
Twelve members of the Ayah Yie Tiger 99 Gang or AYT 99 Gang, including its leader and his lieutenants, aged between 24 and 49, were nabbed in Selangor and Kelantan in an operation on Jan 22 following months of surveillance and intelligence gathering. Among the gang members held were three civil servants.
The gang, which was named after its leader and had been active since 2015, comprises 42 members who are mainly from states in the east coast.
Many of them had past records for serious crimes and drug-related offences.
Federal police CID director Comm Datuk Huzir Mohamed today said the suspects were held for 28 days under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
A week after their arrest, the gang leader led police to a house in Klang where three pistols and 12 rounds of live ammunition were found.
He said a ballistic test by forensics police revealed two of the firearms were used in three unrelated cases, namely in the shooting of Abdul Gani’s driver and two other shooting cases in Sungei Buloh and Klang, where the victims escaped injury.
Huzir said in the case of the former AG’s driver, the victim suffered a gunshot wound on his thigh.
He said the gang was hired to carry out the hit on the victim by another party for RM30,000.
The motive of the attack was unrelated to Abdul Gani and was over a personal dispute between the driver and an individual who called for the hit.
“There were five gang members involved in the case and we have nabbed three of them. The shooter and another member, both whom we have identified, are still at large but we will continue to look for them,“ he said at a press conference in Bukit Aman.
He added the gang was also responsible for abducting, attacking and injuring their victims with sharp weapons in three other cases.
Huzir said an Armenian man’s BMW was also torched following a minor accident with an AYT 99 member and another victim’s car was also burned down over an unpaid debt.
