Dubai: Twelve men have been accused of breaking into a warehouse and smuggling two trucks loaded with laptops worth Dh5 million out of Jebel Ali Port.

The 12 suspects — 10 Pakistanis, an Indian and a Nepalese — were said to have played different roles in the crime. They allegedly broke into the warehouse and bribed a security guard to allow the trucks loaded with 3,317 stolen laptops to drive out of the port in May 2015.

Prosecutors charged the suspects, aged between 22 and 55, with theft, bribery, breaking in, wrecking private properties, possessing stolen items, forgery and using forged papers.

Records said the Nepalese security guard, N.P., accepted Dh1,500 in bribe from a 27-year-old Pakistani man, A.A., to allow him and his nine countrymen to smuggle out the stolen laptops.

The Indian suspect, B.N., a businessman, possessed 1,100 of the stolen laptops.

A.A. bribed N.P. to allow him and his fellow counterparts to drive out two trucks in which they had loaded the stolen laptops.

The suspects were also accused of causing Dh5,500 worth of damage to a warehouse of a distribution company.

The Pakistani suspect, N.M., was charged with falsely reporting to the police that the trucks had been stolen even though he was aware that the vehicles were used in the heist.

A.A. pleaded guilty when he showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.

“Yes, I stole the laptops but we did not wreck the doors … the warehouse was open. The other suspects were not aware that the laptops were stolen when I asked them to drive the trucks out of the port,” he told presiding judge Urfan Omar.

The 11 other suspects pleaded not guilty. The company’s sales manager claimed to prosecutors that they locked the warehouses and left for the weekend. “On a Saturday, we discovered that the glass of a window had been broken. The watchman and I entered the warehouse and saw glass splinters all over the floor from inside. Then we went to the back doors [loading area] and discovered that the doors had been wrecked. Following a quick inventory, we discovered that 3,317 laptops had been stolen. We reported the matter to the police. When the police came, we realised that the culprits had switched off the electricity to disable the CCTV cameras,” he said.

The trial continues.