MORE PICS – 34 Tonnes TIN INGOTS ROBBERY worth RM550,000 at Nibong Tebal Recovered at SCRAPYARD in PERAI 19 Hours later; 10 arrested Includes Dealer

January 26, 2007 17:05 PM

Police Recover Stolen Tin Ingots Worth RM550,000, Arrest 10 Men

ABOVE: Part of recovered 34 tonnes of tin ingots worth RM550,000, 19 hours after they were stolen by five men wielding parangs from a factory warehouse in Nibong Tebal.

ABOVE & BELOW: The newly imported Tin ingots from Germany & Korea were stolen and recovered from a scrapyard reseller

PENANG, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- Police have recovered 34 tonnes of tin ingots worth RM550,000, 19 hours after they were stolen by five men wielding parangs from a factory warehouse in Nibong Tebal. Police have also arrested 10 men in their 20's and 30's to assist investigations into the case. Two of them are believed to have been involved in the robbery, while the rest include a scrapyard operator and a security guard.

Penang chief police officer Datuk Koh Hong Sun (ABOVE) said the five robbers, believed to be Indonesians, broke into the premises at about 4am yesterday after peeling off a zinc wall. Once they got into the premises, they tied a security guard on duty and five Nepalese workers who were sleeping in a cabin. They then opened the main entrance to enable a 30-tonne lorry to drive into the premises and loaded the tin ingots onto the lorry.

ABOVE & BELOW: The ingots were so heavy that forklifts were used to transport them back from the scrapyard

The lorry is believed to have been rented. The tin ingots were imported from Germany and Korea. "Based on recording of the closed-circuit camera, the lorry left the warehouse at about 5am," Koh told reporters after meeting representatives of manufacturers and lorry operators at the Police Service Centre in the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone here today.

He said police recovered the tin ingots at premises that sell and buys scrap items, in Taman Nagasari, Perai, at about 11pm yesterday following police investigations and public tip-off. The lorry used in the robbery has yet to be found. Police are also tracking down the remaining members of the gang who are still at large.

BELOW: The forklift has to be used to lift the heavy ingots to the lorry (ABOVE)