PDRM WORKING WITH INTERPOL TO TRACK DOWN SYNDICATE LINKED TO LANGKAWI BOAT TRAGEDY

ALOR SETAR, Nov 16 (Bernama) -- The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) is working with Interpol and Aseanapol to track down a syndicate believed to be linked to the recent boat tragedy involving migrants in waters off the Malaysia-Thailand border.

Kedah police chief Datuk Adzli Abu Shah said that initial information suggested the syndicate may have been operating in Malaysia and in several neighbouring countries.

“The D3 Division (of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants - ATIPSOM) under the Bukit Aman Criminal Investigations Department is collaborating with Interpol and the ASEAN police.

“We will track down the syndicate and provide any details obtained...we will monitor the progress,” he told a press conference here today.

He added that during interrogation, survivors of the incident claimed they had been assembled at five locations between Baitadung and Teknaf, near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, to board a vessel operated by the syndicate.

Adzli said the syndicate’s modus operandi was to gather as many illegal immigrants as possible and load them onto a vessel at maximum capacity before setting sail.

“The vessel would anchor in a channel between the two countries and would only set sail at full capacity, in this case about 300 people. The journey usually takes around two weeks,” he said.

He said the victims also claimed that payments to the syndicate were only made by their family members upon their arrival in Malaysia.

According to Adzli, police also found handwritten notes from the survivors, containing phone numbers believed to be linked to the syndicate’s agents.

He said interrogations of the 14 survivors of the incident confirmed that all of them were migrants and not members or agents of the syndicate.

Adzli said the survivors also claimed that five individuals, believed to be members of the syndicate, were operating the mothershipthey were aboard.

The victims also claimed that they were transferred to two smaller boats upon reaching waters near the Malaysia-Thailand border and continued their journey without the syndicate members, he said.

The incident, in which a boat carrying more than 70 illegal immigrants capsized in waters off Langkawi, has so far claimed 29 lives, with 14 others found safe.

-- BERNAMA