The
Sharjah Police, in United Aran Emirates, on Monday, October 4th, busted
an international gang that specialised in thefts targeting bank and
hotel clients. The gang, who are considered one of the most dangerous
international criminal syndicate were planning to rob bank clients in
various European countries by stealing their bank account numbers but
their plans were foiled by the police.
A
top official at the CID said the police
received information about the illicit activity of the criminals who are based in Sharjah. The police immediately formed a team
comprising officers from the anti-fraud department to look into the
case. The operation resulted in the arrest of five suspects from various nationalities, including two African nationals.
Unveiling
details about the case, Colonel Ibrahim Mussabah al Ajel, Director of
the CID department, said the gang would steal information of credits
cards that belonged to bank clients inside and outside the country and
use the information to withdraw cash from various countries. The gang
worked in coordination with employees of hotels and gold shops as well
as shopping mals whose main duty was to scan the bank accounts of the
victims who visit their outlets and use their cards for payment. The
employees were lured by the gangsters that they would be offered money.
It was discovered that the gang had contacted a
manager of a popular hotel in the UAE and asked him to issue bills in
names of European tourists and withdraw cash from their accounts from
banks based in their countries. They offered the manager 40 per cent of
the total cash they would get from the European banks.
On
receiving the tip off, the federal crime police informed the Sharjah
Police Criminal and Investigation Department and a CID team team was
formed to launch a probe in cooperation with members of a team
specialised in combating embezzlement.
The team put up a trap in coordination with
hotel manager to catch the culprits. The manager thus set up an
appointment with the culprits who arrived on time with their list of
international and local bank clients. While explaining to the hotel
manager on how to carry out the theft operation, the police raided the
place and arrested the culprits red-handed.
During interrogation, the gang confessed their
plans to steal cash from European banks with the help of people based
within the country. Col Ibrahim Al Ajill, Director-General of
Sharjah Police hailed the cooperation between the Sharjah CID and
Federal CID department which resulted in busting the gang which used the
country as a platform to carry out their international crimes.
He
explained that the gang members contacted
many hotels and gold shops managers to involve them in the crime, but
they all refused, and instead, and informed the police. The suspects are
currently detained and will be referred to the Public Prosecution.
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