Karunanithy (left) and Hazani (middle) addressing the media during the press conference.
KOTA KINABALU: State Police Commissioner Datuk Hazani Ghazali has issued a stern warning to those involved in illegal gambling activities in Sabah, stop it or be ready to face the music.
“During the lockdown, illegal online gambling is active so let me say this, stop it because police will take action against you,” he stressed.
He said this during a press conference on the arrest of four members of ‘Geng Ah Tai’, an illegal gambling syndicate in Tawau which offers top-ups for the activity.
The four were arrested on June 26, Hazani said, adding that three of them were detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on June 21 for bribing police personnel in Tawau to not take action on the syndicate and its activities.
The suspects, a man and two women, were remanded for a week to facilitate MACC investigations and when they were released on MACC bond on June 26, police rearrested them on the charges of being involved in illegal gambling activities.
Hazani said the suspects, a man and two women, were rearrested at the lobby of Wisma Persekutuan in Tawau and will be investigated under the Common Houses Gaming Act and also under the Prevention of Crime Act.
The arrest of the three suspects led to police picking up the fourth individual, a man in his 30’s at Taman Anugerah Tawau at about 2.15pm the same day, he said.
“We are grateful to MACC for their cooperation with the police in its efforts to eradicate illegal gambling activities in the state. We also welcome information from the public on illegal gambling activities … let us work together to put a stop to this illegal activity,” said Hazani.
He added that investigations into the case are ongoing and there will be subsequent arrests.
Police, he added, will take internal action on personnel found accepting bribes.
“What is important is integrity as the police force is entrusted to protect the peace and security of the people. We will take the necessary action against the black sheep(s) and I will not compromise on the issue of integrity,” said Hazani.
He also disclosed that police in OPS SOGA 8 have been making daily arrests of bookies involved in accepting bets for the World Cup qualifying matches.
The situation, he stressed, is not serious as the cases are isolated ones.
Meanwhile Sabah MACC director S. Karunanithy who was also present at the press conference, said the amount involved in the bribery case was RM10,000.
He added that as the case was focused on the three individuals, MACC had yet to arrest any enforcement personnel.
“The case is still under investigation. I want to stress that we want to work with police to put a stop to these syndicates and what is important now is to stop the problem at the root,” he said.
Karunanithy added that last year, MACC Sabah received eight cases of attempts to bribe civil servants and all were from the police force.
“This year there are four cases and two are from the police. This reflects the police force’s seriousness in eradicating corruption,” he stressed.