PUTRAJAYA, March 30 — The Immigration Department has crippled an online gambling syndicate masterminded by a foreigner following the arrest of 15 individuals in a series of raids around the Klang Valley on Tuesday (March 28) and yesterday.
Immigration Department director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said that of the 15 arrested, 14 are foreigners.
He said they raided a premises in Selangor at about 10pm on Tuesday that used a snooker parlour as a front to its gambling activities, which were carried out in a secret room, and arrested three Indonesian men and a Bangladeshi man believed to be the mastermind.
Also arrested were two Indonesian women aged 25 and 40, who operated the gambling machines at the premises and did not have valid work pass, and a 40-year-old local man believed to be the supervisor and caretaker of the premises.
“Customers must have a password set by the syndicate to enter the secret room,” Ruslin told a media conference, earlier today.
He said they then raided several other premises in Kuala Lumpur and arrested six Bangladeshi men, a Nepali man and an Indonesian woman.
According to Ruslin, the mastermind, aged 40, is married to a local woman and owned a company providing cleaning services that has been operating for almost two years.
He said they also seized 46 computers, 37 passports and RM114,450 cash.
“Based on the amount of cash seized, we believe this syndicate is capable of raking in profits of between RM1.3 million and RM1.5 million per year,” Ruslin said.
All 14 foreigners detained would be investigated under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and Immigration Regulations 1963 and have been detained at the Immigration Depot while the local man has been remanded for three days to assist in the investigation.
— Bernama
