Padang Terap police chief Abdull Razak Othman said the first arrest was of a 37-year-old former telecommunications company technician in Pendang.

“The arrests were made following two police reports from the telecommunications company on the theft of components worth approximately RM112,000, suspected to have occurred at around 5pm.

“The suspect, who is married with two children, was detained for further investigation after his house was raided by police at around 12.30am (on Oct 1),” Bernama reported him as saying today.

Abdull Razak said police then detained two other men, aged 31 and 51, suspected of being regular buyers of stolen goods at two separate locations in Alor Setar.

Police also seized equipment believed to have been used by the suspect in committing the crime.

Abdull Razak said the first suspect, who had a record of three drug-related crimes, tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine use.

He said the man was believed to have been stealing substation components for the past two years.

“The main suspect’s modus operandi was to target out-of-sight substations and commit his crimes early in the morning to avoid detection,” he said.

Abdull Razak said with the arrest of the suspects, police had successfully solved 21 cases of substation component theft in Padang Terap, Yan, Pendang and Kota Setar, involving losses of more than RM600,000.