By Alang Bendahara

KUALA LUMPUR: A syndicate cloning trunk radio lines was busted with the arrest of five people and seizure of equipment in Jalan Sungai Besi here yesterday.

The syndicate is believed to have been operating for several years and was responsible for a local licensed telecommunication company losing some RM2.4 million (S$1 million) annually.

They are also believed to be in possession of scanners which can tap into communication lines used by police and other enforcement agencies.

Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Enforcement Department assistant director Enkatesulu Juval said the commission traced the syndicate, thanks to a raid last month in Seremban.

"A dealer of trunk radio sets with cloned lines was arrested and gave us the name of the 'company' that provided it."

Juval said clients for the cloned trunk radios were charged RM40 monthly compared with the RM80 charged by licensed telecommunication companies,

He said the raid on a three-storey shop in Jalan Sungai Besi was conducted by officers from the commission, Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department and Sirim.

On the top floor of the premises was a room filled with electronic equipment to modify trunk radio sets and computers.

Juval said the team detained a Nepalese man, an Indonesian woman and three local men aged between 20 and 30.

He said they confiscated a laptop computer, two personal computers, several interface programming cables, radio equipment, used bar code stickers and photocopies of MyKad.

-The New Straits Times