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| -Lurid Crime Tales- | |
| Malaysian zoomies caught selling two F-5E engines | |
| 2009-12-22 | |
| KUALA LUMPUR: Not one but two jet-fighter engines, each worth RM50 million, were stolen from the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Sungai Besi. Both engines served as powerplants to the F-5E Tiger II fighter and RF-5E Tigereye reconnaissance jets. Well, as it's a two-engine aircraft, that would make sense. Earlier reports had only one engine missing. Both sitting inside an Iranian air force F-5 now, I'm betting. Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said the two engines were discovered stolen in May last year. RMAF had lodged a report with the police on Aug 4 last year. Gani, speaking to the New Straits Times, said police investigation papers would be returned to the Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department today with additional directives. "They will now focus their investigations into government procedures with regard to the transportation of the engines, the private defence contractor handling it and several other individuals, including Malaysian armed forces personnel." The A-G's Chambers had received the investigation papers last month. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said there would be no cover-up of the theft, adding that the Defence Ministry had lodged a police report in August last year. Police had sent Gani a note on the case in May this year. He had given the nod to proceed with investigations in June. Gani will also ask police to furnish more details on the stolen General Electric J85-21A turbojet engines. He said the first engine was transported out of RMAF's Butterworth base to the Sungai Besi base in June 2007 while the second engine was moved out five months later in November. Both engines were to be kept in a warehouse at the Sungai Besi base before being taken out for maintenance. The engines were taken out of the Butterworth base by the same private defence contractor handling its maintenance. Both engines were only discovered stolen along with their maintenance records when RMAF officers wanted to service them in May last year. RMAF lodged a report with the police in August last year after searching for the engines at all its airbases. "Did you check under the couch cushions?" The case was later handled by the Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department in Bukit Aman. The New Straits Times first highlighted the case of the stolen jet engine on Saturday. Reported in the New Straits Times patented "one sentence per paragraph" style. Which I spend time fixing ... It was learnt that the engines were sold to arms dealers on the black market. Intelligence reports suggested the engines were later transported to a US-sanctioned Middle Eastern country that was keen on developing its own fighter jet. Other reports said it was a South American buyer - shifting blame from the government-approved buyer to the politically correct blame taker?
An audit launched after the case also showed that equipment worth several millions of ringgit were missing. | |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #4 This trend is on the rise in many not so developed countries. Rogue pays insiders or professional thieves to obtain equipment to tinker with. It is cheaper to do so than development and faster for weapons development. Lots of this stuff going on. The more rogue states, the more looting and proliferation. Iran / Venezuela | |
| Posted by: newc 2009-12-22 16:27 |
| #3 Another story mentioned it was one engine not two, but seems everywhere its being quoted as RM50 million worth which is a bit high. That amount translates to 14.5 million USD, now an F-5E used to only sell for 2-3 million tops I'm finding it hard to believe the ENGINE is more than 7 times the price of the plane. |
| Posted by: Valentine 2009-12-22 14:34 |
| #2 Zoomies = slang for air force personnel. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-12-22 02:41 |
| #1 Uh, uh, "ZOOM" the 1970's kid show??? Gut nuthin. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-12-22 00:37 |