Police solved a series of house break-ins here with the arrest of eight men, including a foreigner early this month.

Tawau district police chief ACP Peter Umbuas said the suspects aged between 22 and 47, were arrested in a raid on Oct 2, while another suspect, known as Hen Mok Cheen (Ah Chee), 39, is still on the loose.

"The arrest of a suspect on Oct 2 at a room at the Cowie Industrial Estate, led to the arrests of the others,” he told a media conference in Tawau yesterday.

Also seized were various types of housebreaking tools, handphones and four vehicles believed to have been used during the break-ins, while further checks found that the suspects have previous criminal records for house break-ins and drug abuse, he added.

In another case, Peter said police arrested three men aged between 31 and 39 suspected of breaking into a house in Taman Bintang between 1am and 2.22am yesterday.

Two of them have previous criminal records for armed robbery, he added.

- Bernama