Luxury car smuggling gang busted; four held
Dubai Police formed a special team after a complaint by a car rental agency
Dubai Police busted a gang, which planned to steal high-end cars in the UAE and smuggle them abroad using fake licence plates. Four people were arrested in the operation.
Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jalaf, director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), it all started with a complaint made by a car rental agency about the suspected theft of a Dh1.3 million Lamborghini Urus rented to an Eastern European person.
Dubai Police formed a team from the Criminal Analysis Centre and the CID, which tracked down the vehicle.
The team then determined the suspects’ identities and monitored their movements before zeroing in on on their residence. “All suspects hold the same Eastern European nationality. They rented a residential place in a luxury area as a base for their activities,” Brig Al Jalaf said.
Colonel Adel Al Joker, acting director of CID, said the police planned then a raid on the suspects’ hideout. “Our teams took down the four suspects and seized forged car plates and forging tools at their residence,” he said.
The suspects admitted to sending one of their gang members to rent the luxury car and then planning to smuggle the car overseas. “They planned to smuggle the car outside the country using forged plates,” he explained.
Lt Gen Abdullah Khalifa Al Merri, Dubai Police Chief, said: “This is another great achievement added to the proud record of Dubai Police in ensuring the emirate’s security and safety as well as preserving people’s money and property.”
Maj Gen Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, assistant chief of Criminal Investigation Affairs, said that the arrests were made after monitoring the movements of the gang members over several days following which the criminals’ hideout was raided.