Singapore jails armed Malaysian gang for US$3.9 million ‘lightning heist’ at bungalow

After learning that a woman regularly hosted high-stakes poker games at her home in Singapore’s affluent Bukit Timah area, two men plotted to rob the house, recruiting a group of people from Malaysia and conducting surveillance before carrying out the plan.

Prosecutors said seven men entered the King Albert Park good class bungalow in the early hours of April 18, 2024, in a “lightning heist”, some of them armed with machetes and baseball bats. They tied up the people inside and stole about S$4.9 million (US$3.9 million) in cash, valuables and cryptocurrency.

The men then fled Singapore with the loot in two cars, crossing the border into Malaysia through the Tuas and Woodlands checkpoints in what the judge called an “audacious and well-planned” operation disrupting peace and security.

Most of the men in the group were subsequently arrested and taken back to Singapore to face prosecution. One man, 33-year-old Malaysian Muhammad Yusuf Kassim, remains at large and is believed to have left Malaysia for Thailand, court documents stated.