A house in Kampung Pisang, Machang Bubok, where two of the suspects stayed, was allegedly used as a slaughterhouse. – The Malaysian Insider pic, January 12, 2015.Police are looking for four foreigners believed to be part of the group behind a series of murder-cum-mutilations of Myanmar refugees in Penang.State police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said although the four have since fled the state, police believe they are still in the country and had assumed new identities.“Our investigations indicated that they are still hiding here. We will use all our resources to find and arrest them," he said at the state police headquarters in George Town today.Rahim said police were having difficulty tracking them down as the suspects did not have any official records in the country.“They can easily change their names and they also have no families here," Rahim said.“But we will search on until we get them," he added, without providing further details.Police had in November launched Ops Kelar – an operation specifically to probe into the murders involving foreigners and Myanmar nationals whose bodies were chopped up and body parts dumped at various locations in the state.Rahim however was tight-lipped on the motives of the murders, saying that it stemmed from personal feuds that originated from Myanmar.He urged Malaysians not to panic, saying that the security and safety of locals are not under threat.Early last month, Penang police picked up 20 suspects in their 20s and 40s, including two men in Rawang, in connection with the cases.A house in Kampung Pisang, Machang Bubok, where two of the suspects stayed, was allegedly used as a slaughterhouse.Eight suspects were released on bail in early December and another one released this month.Of the remaining 11, nine are now being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder while two others under Section 6 of the Immigration Act for illegal entry, he said.Rahim added that police are closing in on a second cell of Myanmar murderers in Penang whose members have also gone into hiding, with the help of relevant government agencies.On another matter, Rahim said the state police and federal Narcotics Investigations Department busted a drugs manufacturing syndicate operating in the northern region with the arrests of six people in Penang and Sungai Petani in Kedah last Saturday.The case is being investigated under Section 39B(1) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 for trafficking in dangerous drugs which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.He said the total drugs seized amounted to RM500,000 in value.“The syndicate was supplying in the northern states and did not seem to be linked to any other drug syndicates," he said.He said police acted on a tip-off and began an operation in Jelutong, George Town, at about 1.30pm in which two men were arrested and 16 packets of heroin weighing 6,474g were seized.The arrests led the police to raid a house in Sungai Petani where an illegal drugs processing laboratory was found, he said.Police seized chemical items, processing equipment, 259g of heroin and 23.8kg of caffeine, and arrested a man and a woman, aged 48 and 38 respectively, at the site, he said.This then led to a raid on another laboratory at a house in Faraday Road in Gelugor, Penang, in which two more men were arrested, he added.Police found a loaded semi-automatic gun and a box of bullets, with 18.7 kg of caffeine, chemical materials, equipment, 860 gm of heroine base and 460g of heroin here, Rahim said.All the suspects are being held in remand until January 17, he added. – January 12, 2015.
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