
Porn VCDs, fake money among case items destroyed by cops
KUALA LUMPUR: Case items worth RM721,239, including pornographic VCDs, counterfeit currency and mobile phones, have been disposed of by police following the conclusion of legal proceedings.
Brickfields OCPD Asst Comm Ku Mashariman Ku Mahmood said the items were seized in raids conducted by the Brickfields Criminal Investigation Department and Commercial Crime Investigation Department from 2017 until this year.
'A total of 138 investigation papers were opened, involving offences such as vice-related activities at massage parlours, illegal gambling and entertainment outlets,' he told reporters at a disposal ceremony here yesterday.
ACP Ku Mashariman said the items were disposed of in accordance with legal procedures following the conclusion of trials and sentencing of the suspects.
'This process not only ensures compliance with the law but also helps free up storage space and prevents theft or misuse of case items,' he added.
'One of the major cases involved the seizure of US$400,000 (RM1.6mil) in counterfeit US currency,' ACP Ku Mashariman said.
'We busted a group of foreign nationals last year who attempted to sell the fake notes by offering an exchange to ringgit at lower rates.'
The suspects had packaged the forged currency in sealed plastic to make it appear genuine.
'They were later convicted and sentenced to a year and three months in prison,' ACP Ku Mashariman said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

The Star
30 minutes ago
- The Star
Vanished without a trace
'DON't wait for her,' the WhatsApp caller told the family of Abeer Suleiman on May 21, hours after she vanished from the streets of Safita, a town in Syria's coastal heartland. 'She's not coming back.' The kidnapper and another man, identifying himself as an intermediary, said the 29-year-old would either be killed or trafficked unless her relatives paid a ransom of US$15,000. 'I am not in Syria,' Abeer herself told her family in a call on May 29, using the same Iraqi phone number as her captors. 'All the accents around me are strange.' Reuters reviewed the recording, along with other calls and messages from the abductor and intermediary, who also used a Syrian number. Abeer is among at least 33 women and girls from Syria's Alawite sect – aged between 16 and 39 – who have disappeared this year amid the chaos following the fall of Bashar al-Assad. That's according to the families of every one of them. The overthrow of Assad in December, after 14 years of civil war, unleashed a wave of revenge against the Alawites, the Muslim minority from which he hails. Armed factions aligned with Syria's new government turned on Alawite civilians in March, killing hundreds. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria says it is investigating the spike in reports of missing Alawite women. Its chair, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, told the UN Human Rights Council in June that the abductions of at least six women had been documented. Two remain missing. The commission has also received credible reports of further cases. Abeer's family scraped together her ransom, borrowing from neighbours to transfer US$15,000 in 30 installments via accounts in the Turkish city of Izmir. Once the money was paid in full on May 28, contact ceased. The kidnappers' phones went dark. Abeer's family has heard nothing since. A fighter of the ruling Syrian body standing while holding a weapon, after violence in Tartous province. — Reuters Interviews with the families of 16 of the missing found that seven were abducted for ransom – demands ranged from US$1,500 to US$100,000. Three, including Abeer, managed to get messages to their families saying they'd been taken abroad. There's been no word on the other nine. Many are under 18. Reuters reviewed messages, calls and ransom receipts linked to the abductions but could not verify every detail or confirm the identities or motives of the perpetrators. All 33 women disappeared in the governorates of Tartous, Latakia and Hama, Alawite community heartlands. Nearly half have since returned home. None would speak publicly – many cited fears for their safety. Most families said police dismissed their cases or failed to investigate thoroughly. Pinheiro confirmed that Syria's interim authorities had opened some investigations but gave no details. The Syrian government did not respond to requests for comment. Ahmed Mohammed Khair, a media officer for the Tartous governor, claimed most cases stemmed from family disputes or women running away to avoid forced marriages. A media officer in Latakia echoed this view. Hama's authorities declined to comment. A fact-finding committee set up by Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to probe the March killings of Alawites declined to discuss the missing women. Rights advocate Yamen Hussein, tracking the disappearances, said the pattern began in earnest after March's violence. As far as he knew, only Alawite women were being targeted. The identities and motives of the perpetrators are unclear. Alawites, who follow an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, make up about 10% of Syria's predominantly Sunni population. Hussein said fear has gripped Alawite communities. Some women now avoid school or college, fearing abduction. 'For sure, we have a real issue here where Alawite women are being targeted,' Hussein said. 'Targeting women of the defeated party is a humiliation tactic that was used in the past by the Assad regime.' Thousands of Alawites have been displaced from Damascus, others fired from their jobs or harassed at checkpoints run by Sunni factions now aligned with the government. Family accounts suggest most women vanished in daylight, running errands or travelling on public transport. Zeinab Ghadir, 17, disappeared on her way to school on Feb 27. Her kidnapper texted the family from her phone: 'I don't want to see a single picture or, I swear to God, I will send you her blood.' Zeinab made a brief, frightened call saying she didn't know where she was and felt unwell. She hasn't been heard from since. Khozama Nayef, 35, was abducted in rural Hama in March by five men who drugged her and held her for 15 days while they negotiated a US$1,500 ransom. After her release, her family said she suffered a mental breakdown. Days later, Doaa Abbas, 29, was grabbed outside her home in Salhab, Hama. A relative chased the abductors' car on a motorbike but lost them. Three Alawite women reported missing this year later resurfaced publicly denying abduction. One, a 16-year-old from Latakia, claimed she ran away to marry a Sunni man. Her family insists she was forced and that authorities coerced her into recanting to protect her kidnappers. Two others, a 23-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl, told Arabic TV they had travelled willingly to Aleppo and Damascus respectively. One later claimed she was beaten by a man before escaping. For decades, Alawites dominated Syria's political and military elites under the Assad dynasty. But Assad's fall ushered in a government led by HTS, a Sunni group with roots in al-Qaeda. It is trying to integrate former rebels, including foreign fighters, into the security forces to fill the void left by Assad's collapsed army. Families fear history repeating. Many dread that Alawite women could suffer the fate inflicted on Yazidi women by Islamic State a decade ago: mass abduction, trafficking and sexual slavery. Nagham Shadi's family lives in that terror. The 23-year-old vanished in June after leaving home in al-Bayadiyah, Hama, to buy milk. Her father, Shadi Aisha, said his family had already been forced from their previous village in March's anti-Alawite violence. 'What do we do? We leave it to God,' he said. — Reuters


The Star
31 minutes ago
- The Star
Afghans loiter at KLIA for four days
PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency (AKPS) thwarted an attempt by four Afghan nationals, believed to be from a family, to enter Malaysia using fake visas. The agency said the four were among 132 foreigners who were checked during a monitoring and document screening operation at KLIA Terminal 1. It said the four individuals – a man and three women – were spotted wandering in the terminal area, which aroused the suspicion of the KLIA Terminal 1 monitoring unit personnel. 'The four were found to have arrived in Malaysia on July 24 at 9.20pm, but failed to report to the immigration counter within the specified time. 'It is learnt that they had been in the terminal area for four days without going through the immigration inspection process,' said the agency in a statement. AKPS said further checks on their travel documents revealed that the visas were fake. 'The fake visas were obtained through an agent for a fee of US$6,000 (RM25,350),' read the statement, Bernama reported. The agency refused entry (Not To Land) to the four individuals, who will be deported to their country of origin today.


The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
HPL looks to cut stakes in Singapore retail strip
HPL's embattled billionaire Ong Beng Seng. — Reuters SINGAPORE: The property firm of embattled billionaire Ong Beng Seng is looking to reduce its stakes in two marquee assets along Singapore's Orchard Road shopping strip, according to people familiar with the matter. Hotel Properties Ltd or HPL is in talks to sell majority stakes in the Forum shopping mall, as well as the voco Orchard hotel, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. The firm is seeking a deal that would value the two adjacent assets for at least S$2bil (US$1.6bil), they said. A spokesperson for Singapore-listed Hotel Properties declined to comment. The firm has interests in more than 40 hotels across the globe, including the Four Seasons in Singapore, as well as resorts in the Maldives. Ong, 79, has been in the spotlight in the last couple of years after being implicated in a scandal that led to the imprisonment of a senior politician in Singapore. Ong has indicated he plans to plead guilty on Aug 4 after being charged last year for abetting former Transport Minister S. Iswaran over two flights and a night's stay at the Four Seasons in Doha. It's unclear whether the case has any relation to the firm's planned asset sales. Hotel Properties won provisional permission from authorities in August 2023 to redevelop the two sites, along with its company headquarters, HPL House. That was part of a government plan to rejuvenate the luxury Orchard Road shopping district by allowing developers to seek more space or change of use for older buildings. The company intends to keep its ownership of HPL House under the potential sale, the people said. It said earlier this year in its annual report that redevelopment plans are 'being refined for submission to the relevant authorities'. In April, Ong relinquished his decades-long tenure as managing director of Hotel Properties. Two long-time executives replaced him, after he cited a desire to devote more time to his medical issues. But he continues to provide 'strategic oversight and direction' to the firm. Together with his wife Christina, the tycoon controls Hotel Properties with a roughly 60% stake. The next largest shareholder is Hong Kong billionaire Peter Woo. The Forum mall is valued at about S$990mil, group executive director Christopher Lim said at the company's annual meeting in April. That estimate doesn't account for the redevelopment. He declined to comment on the value of the voco, formerly the Hilton Singapore, saying the company didn't have a valuation for it. Hotel Properties is set to gain full ownership in August of the Concorde, an S$821mil shopping mall and hotel complex on Orchard Road, after buying out minority stakes it didn't own. The company's stock has soared 46% this year, almost four times the gain in Singapore's Straits Times Index. — Bloomberg