Malaysian kingpin running Singapore scam operations arrested
The alleged mastermind of a syndicate coordinating government official impersonation scam and money laundering operations in Singapore has been arrested.Nicknamed "Da Xiang" (big elephant), the 27-year-old Malaysian man was arrested by the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) on Tuesday (Sept 22) and handed over to the Singapore Police Force (SPF) on the same day.SPF said in a news release on Tuesday night that the RMP's arrest was made pursuant to a Warrant of Arrest issued by Singapore authorities.According to the police, "Da Xiang" was allegedly responsible for recruiting and coordinating Malaysians to conduct scam and money laundering operations in Singapore.Preliminary investigations revealed that the Malaysian man had physically met with at least four Malaysian runners on multiple occasions in Malaysia.There, he assigned tasks, co-ordinated ATM withdrawals, and disbursed their earnings from these jobs, police said.Investigations also found that the runners, under the 27-year-old's instructions, brought gold items collected from scam victims during their assignments back to Johor Bahru and physically handed them over to him.