KLANG: Twelve men, including an Indonesian, were arrested in nine raids around here on May 26 and 27, in connection with a bitcoin mining machine theft case involving a loss of hundreds of thousands of ringgit.

       North Klang district police chief, ACP S. Vijaya Rao, said the suspects, aged 20 to 40, were detained by police, following a report lodged by the owner of an aluminium factory in the West Meru industrial area, near here, after his factory was broken into and 180 bitcoin machines were stolen in two incidents, on April 27 and May 20.

       He said that based on the modus operandi used, the suspects robbed the factory early in the morning and tied up the security personnel on duty.

       "Following that, an investigation paper under Section 395/397 of the Penal Code was opened. All the suspects were remanded for five days to assist in the investigation,” he said at a press conference at the North Klang district police headquarters, here on Monday (May 30).

       Vijaya Rao said all local suspects arrested had multiple criminal and drug-related records, while the Indonesian had no criminal record.

       "During the raids, among items seized were cars, computers, mobile phones and bitcoin mining machines. As a result of the arrests, the police have managed to solve three bitcoin machine robbery cases in the North Klang area,” he said.

       He said the police were currently tracking down three other suspects who were still at large, known as Tan Jian Farn (Q-Peng), 37, Herman Petrus, 41 and Abdul Rahim Mohamad Ali, 33, believed to be involved in the incident. - Bernama