MIRI, MALAYSIA: CCTV images have proven to be effective in helping the police take swift action against criminals as demonstrated by the arrest of a group of protection-money gangsters in the city here.

It took less than 24 hours for Miri police led by CID chief Asst Supt Mohd Zaini Che Din to identify and arrest the five gang members who went on a rampage in a video shop after its owner refused to pay the demanded sum of RM500 a month to the hooligans.

Video images provided concrete evidence for police to round up the suspects.

?Verbal descriptions are not as good as images taken by cameras. All shops and even houses should have such monitoring equipment, especially those victimised by protection-money collectors,? said a member of the team which arrested the five men.

On Tuesday, the gang members, aged between 18 and 27, ran riot in the shop and smashed up everything using steel bars.

What they failed to realise was that their action was caught on camera.

ASP Zaini and his men set up an ambush in the city and nabbed the five men on Tuesday afternoon after they reviewed the CCTV images.

On Wednesday, the five suspects were remanded for a week to facilitate further investigations.

Miri police chief Asst Comm Jamaluddin Ibrahim said that police had always advised business premises, banks, money changers, commercial sector proprietors and houseowners to install CCTVs to deter crime.