T

angerang Police have arrested two of six gang members who were allegedly involved in a recent robbery in Pondok Aren, South Tangerang.

Chief Sr. Comr. Bambang Priyo Andogo said the two suspects, identified as Zaenal Abidin, 47, and Ahmad, 37, belonged to a gang believed to have been involved in 50 robberies in Malaysia between 2002 and 2005.

“The two men were arrested over the weekend in Tanjung Butung village on Batam Island, while the four other gang members have fled, we believe, to their hometown in Sumbawa, East Nusa Tenggara [NTT],” Bambang told a press conference at his office on Monday.

The police were coordinating with their counterparts in NTT during the ongoing search for the four suspects, he added.

On Jan. 23, the gang burglarized the house of Tri Djoko Mulyanto, a retired state-owned enterprise official, in South Tangerang. They made off with cash amounting to Rp 8 million (US$827), four cell phones and three watches.

“The two arrested suspects said they were driving an Avanza minibus on the day in question and had planned a robbery in Kampung Rambutan, East Jakarta, but then they chose their victim at random,” Bambang said.

Police officers shot both the suspects in their legs when they tried to resist arrest. Police also confiscated three cell phones, 110 SIM cards and 12 pairs of pants, all of which are assumed to be stolen goods.

According to Bambang, both suspects had criminal records, having been jailed in Kajang Penitentiary in Kuala Lumpur in 2002 for robbery.

“They went on to commit 50 robberies in Malaysia before returning home. Before the burglary in Pondok Aren, the gang had also robbed from a house in Cilegon on Jan. 20 and made off with Rp 70 million in cash,” he said.

Bambang said the two men would be charged under Article 365 of the Criminal Code on robbery, which carries a maximum 12 year jail sentence.

In a separate operation, police arrested on Friday two people posing as journalists, who were caught red-handed extorting money from a civil servant with the Tangerang Health Agency.

Tangerang Police detectives chief Comr. Shinto Silitonga said that Bunyanah Sonfa, 62, and Mulyanto, 34, were arrested while being handed Rp 1.5 million in cash outside the Sepatan district administration office.

Shinto said that the suspects had told the victim they were going to run a story on him as, according to them, he had impregnated a young woman.

“They demanded Rp 5 million in cash in exchange for not reporting the victim to the head of the health agency or the human resources bureau, and for not publishing the story,” Shinto said.

The victim, however, reported the intended blackmail to the police, who later set up the sting operation.