Car smuggling attempt foiled and gang busted

Dubai: The Dubai Police foiled an attempt to smuggle a stolen car outside the country.
The ignorance of the driver regarding the specifications of the car he was driving led to foiling the attempted smuggling of the vehicle through Al Wajajah checkpoint, which in turn resulted in capturing a gang specialised in stealing and smuggling cars through the country's borders.
Colonel Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, police director of the Criminal Investigation Department, said the details of the incident goes back to April 25, when the Omani border police suspected a 2008 Land Cruiser with Dubai registration number plates.

The driver had stopped the car after going through the border check point at Al Wajajah when the car's windscreen started flashing a red light. When the driver was unable to restart the car, the Omani police detained the vehicle and driver, handing them over to the CID at Hatta police station.
The suspect claimed to be a taxi driver usually carrying passengers between the Oman and the UAE. He said he received a telephone call from an unknown man the day before. The man allegedly asked the suspect to deliver the sports utility vehcile to a person in Oman at the Al Seeb International Airport.
The suspect met the man in a Dubai restaurant and received the car and all its documents that were stamped and ready to be delivered in Oman.
Colonel Al Mansouri said that specialised CID teams searched the car and found forged car ownership and authorisation documents.
Through police investigations, it was discovered that the car is owned by a car rental office. The car rental owner affirmed ownership of the car, and that all the documents held by the police had been forged.
Police have uncovered that the car thieves were led by a Syrian national who was arrested and subsequently confessed to stealing and smuggling six other cars. He also said that he had a Czech accomplice who usually rented the cars that were to be stolen.