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.
Source: Gulf News/Khaleej Times
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