Published: Friday July 15, 2011 MYT 6:14:00 PM
Police nab 5 South Americans for stealing RM1.66mil in jewellery at KLIA
SHAH ALAM: Police arrested five South American men who allegedly stole diamonds and jewellery worth RM1.66mil from six Hong Kong jewellers at the KL International Airport (KLIA) on Monday.
Selangor CID chief SAC Mohd Adnan Abdullah said the thefts occurred in two separate cases at the departure hall of the airport after the jewellers, who took part in the just concluded international jewellery fair in Kuala Lumpur from July 7 to 10, were distracted.
He said the jewellers were waiting for their flights home when the jewel thieves struck.
In the first incident at about 8am, a jeweller, who was responsible for three bags of diamond and jewellery worth RM257,040 discovered two of the bags on a trolley were missing seconds after he was approached by a South American man.
The South American man patted the jeweller on the shoulder and asked him some questions that he could not understand, Mohd Adnan told a news conference here on Friday.
In the second incident at 8.45am, a jeweller, who was waiting for his colleague and had ordered food at a fast food restaurant, found one of two bags of diamond and jewellery worth RM1.4mil beside him had been replaced by another bag minutes after he was greeted by a South American woman.
Mohd Adnan said the replacement bag contained several clothing items and wigs.
He said the police arrested four male suspects aged between 25 and 50 in a hired car at 6.20pm on Tuesday outside a supermarket in Petaling Jaya and a 32-year-old suspect at a restaurant in Sunway at 12.20am on Wednesday.
The police were tracking the other suspects but had yet to recover the loot, he said, adding that the five South American suspected were remanded until Sunday to facilitate investigations. - Bernama
