Five arrested for stealing cars in Jebel Ali

Police arrested five Asians suspected of stealing 20 cars from residential areas in Jebel Ali. Brigadier Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Director General of Dubai Police's Criminal Investigation Department, said at a press conference at Dubai Police Headquarters that the suspects were arrested after less than 10 days of investigation. According to police the accused would tow the cars from Jebel Ali to warehouses in the industrial area in Sharjah. Police said the cars were then cut up before they were sent to the home country of the suspects. Article continues below Brigadier Al Mansouri said that in the past few months car theft cases have increased in Dubai. "The gang used to steal vehicles of different models from different areas in Dubai before [starting to] steal cars from Jebel Ali area," he said. "We tracked 20 stolen cars which [were] found in three or four warehouses in Sharjah," he said. Keeping note Brigadier Al Mansouri said police received a number of reports from residents in Jebel Ali about their stolen cars. Brigadier Al Mansouri said the accused targeted vehicles which had not moved from the parking areas for more than a week. "They used to keep note of the targeted car, leaving a mobile phone number asking the owner if he or she wants to sell it, but when no one called the suspects used to tow away the car," he said. He said they used forged documents from the Roads and Transport Authority to show that they own the car in case police questioned them while they were towing away the car. "They used to take the cars to warehouses in Sharjah where they immediately dismantled them into three or four pieces before sending these to their home country where they were reassembled and sold," he said. "They send them in cargo through one of the country's ports," he said refusing to name the port. He added that according to the Ministry of Interior some of the cars were stolen from Abu Dhabi and Ajman. Brigadier Al Mansouri said that police received a tip-off that one of the accused was going to tow one of the cars. "He was arrested red-handed. We were able to solve the case in three days only," he said. Criminal record He said that the accused all have criminal records here while some of them had been deported earlier but have infiltrated through the borders. He said the police are still searching for the last warehouse where the suspects are believed to have kept more cars. Brigadier Al Mansouri urged the public to contact the police immediately if they spot a person loitering in parking areas. Monitoring committee named Brigadier Al Mansouri said that due to the increase in car theft incidents in the country the Ministry of Interior set up a committee headed by Lieutenant General Saif Abdullah Al Shaffar, undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior to follow up and monitor car theft cases.