MIRI, MALAYSIA: Some deported gangster bosses are back. And the police are frustrated.

These gangster bosses were arrested last year during a massive crackdown by the Sarawak police and Bukit Aman and deported to other states.

But these notorious crooks have used technical grounds to get court declarations that their deportations were illegal, thereby forcing their way back into this state.

This is causing great frustration among the top brass of the Sarawak police.

Asst Comm Hadeni Baseri, who is Sarawak Deputy CID chief (in charge of investigations and legal affairs) said yesterday the police had a tough time trying to get rid of these hooligans.

"We (police) have done our very best. We don't want these people around.

"We arrested many of them (in the middle of last year during the crackdown) and we deported them to other states to separate them from their links here.

"However, to our dismay, they managed to get themselves released using technicalities in the law. They have also found their way back into this state.

"We got them off the streets but they somehow managed to find loopholes and came back again.

"The police are bound by the law. There is only so much we can do," he said when commenting on why armed robberies and other forms of crimes had continued to remain a major concern among the people of this state.

ACP Hadeni, who was here on the invitation of the Sarawak United People?s Party (SUPP) to meet concerned voters and community groups, said crime bosses knew how to snake their way around the law.

He cited an example of gangsters, arrested in Bintulu last year and deported to various parts of Sabah, who managed to somehow get back into Sarawak and make Miri their new base.

"Miri is only about 200km from Bintulu. It is just like being at home!" he said.

ACP Hadeni said the police were also facing difficulties in trying to get extended remand orders from the courts against those whom the police suspect to be gangsters.

"The remand orders are for very short periods of time. Most are only for four days.

Even for cases like murder, we can only get seven days remand order which can be renewed for only another seven days," he said.

The crime situation is worrying the people of Sarawak, and the opposition has been using this as a rallying point against the ruling coalition.