The police took the shine out of a gang of international diamond thieves when they detained seven foreigners, including two students of local private colleges yesterday, and recovered stolen jewellery.

Among the suspects were a 48-year-old Columbian and his 29-year-old son who is studying at a private college in Kajang.

The diamond-studded jewellery was stolen from a Hong Kong-based jewellery company manager when she arrived at the KL International Airport (KLIA) on Wednesday.

The 53-year-old woman had arrived at the KLIA to participate in an international jewellery exhibition at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

While enquiring about booking a limousine taxi to Kuala Lumpur, a foreigner snatched her bag containing an assortment of jewellery kept in a trolley, and fled. At 2.25pm yesterday, a police team raided a condominium in Jalan Semantan, Kuala Lumpur and nabbed the suspects.

The foreigners comprised three Costa Rica nationals, including a woman; the Columbian father and son; a Mexcian and a woman from Uganda.

Selangor police chief Datuk Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said the police, acting on their intelligence network, picked up the suspects, aged between 25 and 48.

“We also seized 309 jewellery pieces estimated about RM2 million and are reviewing the closed-circuit television cameras (at the KLIA) to facilitate investigations.

“We are also investigating whether the suspects were linked to the theft of hospital medical equipment,” he told reporters at the Selangor police headquarters here yesterday.

Tun Hisan said the woman from Uganda was also a student at a private college in Selangor, while the rest arrived in the country as tourists.

He said the Hong Kong woman had been asked to identify the recovered jewellery pieces.

Source: The Borneo Post