POLICE have not discounted the possibility that three suspects in the Cambodian job scam that saw 47 Malaysians duped have left Sarawak illegally.

State Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah said he does not believe Mohd Ghafar Abdul Jamal, 26, Chang Ying Shiong, 25, and Lai King Loong, 31, have left the state, based on Immigration Department records.

“Immigration records do not show that they have left the state, but we do not know if they used ‘jalan tikus’ (illegal border crossings) to enter Kalimantan,” he said today.

Police are investigating the syndicate, which tricked a group of Malaysians into paying a RM700 “processing fee” each to secure well-paying – but non-existent – hotel jobs in Cambodia.

The victims were falsely promised jobs with salaries of between US$1,200 and US$1,500 (RM4,900 and RM6,100) a month.

Mustafa described the three suspects as “local facilitators” for the international syndicate, and appealed to their families and the public to turn them in or alert police to their whereabouts.

It was reported that Ghafar left Poipet, a gambling city on the Thai-Cambodian border, two days before Cambodian police raided two villas where the 47 Malaysians – 40 from Sarawak – were being kept.

The ease with which he fled raised a red flag after investigators found out that when four of the Sarawakian victims tried to escape, they were beaten up by their Chinese and Cambodian minders.

Chang and Lai were among the 47 arrested by Cambodian authorities on December 11 last year on charges related to online gambling, and held at the Banteay Meanchey provincial jail. They were brought home on February 17 after Wisma Putra and the Sarawak government negotiated the group’s release.

Mustafa said after questioning 26 of the former detainees, police have “enough evidence” to implicate the two in the scam.

Police are investigating the syndicate under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating and “dishonestly inducing the delivery of property”.

More arrests may be made as some of the ex-detainees are suspected of having made up to 17 trips to Cambodia to carry out syndicate-related activities.

The unsuspecting Malaysians were forced to participate in the online cheating racket popularly known as the Macau Scam. They were ordered to memorise a script, and taught how to talk like a court official or police officer when calling victims.

Police have detained three people, including a woman, in their investigations into the scam.

A 34 year-old man was picked up and remanded on February 24, while the two others, both 35, were arrested the following day at their homes in Kuching.

The trio’s seven-day remand orders have expired, and they are out on police bail. They have been ordered by the court to make themselves available for further questioning by police.

The 47 Malaysians, accused of being involved in running an illegal online gambling operation in Poipet, were given a “temporary release” by the Cambodian courts to enable them to return home. However, their charges remain on record.

The Sarawak government footed the bill for the group’s return, including their stay at a hotel before their flight home, a US$30 exit fee and charter of an aircraft. – March 4, 2019.