PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA: Singapore has been identified as one of the transit points for cars stolen in Malaysia before being shipped to buyers in the Middle East and Africa. This was discovered following the seizure of 45 stolen cars worth RM5 million in the republic recently.

The operation also saw the arrests of 17 syndicate members, including three Singaporeans.

Describing it as the biggest bust against car theft syndicates in recent times, Federal CID director Datuk Mohd Bakri Zinin, attributed the success to joint operations between Malaysian police and their Singaporean counterparts.

The operation began in December following the arrest of three suspects in Johor after a tip-off.

Investigations then revealed how stolen vehicles were smuggled into Singapore in containers.

"The syndicate had used false documents to ship the vehicles," Bakri said at the Asian Pacific Auction Centre in Subang here yesterday.

The vehicles were mainly four-wheel-drive models including Nissan X-trail, Frontier, Murano, Toyota Hilux, Toyota Fortuner and Honda CRV.

The vehicles were surrendered to their respective insurance companies yesterday.

Those arrested, including three Singaporeans between the ages of 25 and 35, were charged recently. Two of them are being detained under the Emergency Ordinance.

Bakri said the syndicate members had also used several of the stolen vehicles to commit crimes there. For example, he said, one of the Toyota Hilux stolen in Ipoh was used in a robbery there.

"The syndicate members used various methods to steal the vehicles, including staging accidents and forcing the drivers to stop by pretending to be car repossessors.

"We believe some of the stolen vehicles have already reached overseas buyers and we are working with our counterparts there to recover the vehicles."