KUCHING: A suspect, believed to be a member of an armed robbery gang terrorizing the border towns here, was arrested at 4.30am yesterday after a short struggle in a river.
The 29-year-old man from Entikong, Indonesia was with two others who managed to escape the police dragnet.
A police task force led by Inspector Kallang ak Buda was patrolling
Raso, Lundu yesterday morning when the Inspector saw a black Perodua Myvi moving towards a plantation road leading to Indonesia.
Earlier on at about 3am, four masked robbers, armed with machetes, broke into a double storey terrace house at Batu Kawa-Tondong Road.
A couple sleeping in the hall was tied up. The suspects then
ransacked the house and fled with the couple’s Perodua Myvi and several handphones.
On seeing them, the police team gave chase and about a kilometre from the border, the car stopped and three persons were seen fleeing the vehicle.
The police team gave chase in pitch darkness and managed to apprehend one of them after a short struggle in a river. The other two suspects managed to escape under the cover of darkness.
The Perodua Myvi abandoned by the suspects is the same car that was robbed from the couple at Batu Kawa earlier.
Found in the vehicle were three machetes, a baton, two laptops, one tablet, eight mobile phones, two wristwatches and a pair of gloves.
Efforts are underway to locate the other two suspects, also Indonesians.
A fourth suspect, part of the armed robbery gang, was not seen and could possibly be a local.
Meanwhile, the two suspects who escaped are believed to have crossed the border.
When contacted, Head of CID Sarawak, SAC Dato’ Dev Kumar said this was the sixth robbery in Padawan this year; all robberies were believed to have been committed by the same suspects from Indonesia.
Since the beginning of this month, the Samun Rantau Task Force from the CID Headquarters has been on the ground every night trying to nab the suspects.
Dev said police would continue to monitor the situation.
