Dubai: Police arrest three suspects linked to an international gang for drug trafficking and money laundering last month.
Dubai Police arrested three suspects, between December 10 and December 12 accused of drug trafficking and money laundering, the three suspects are connected to an international gang that spans across the UAE, South Africa, United Kingdom, and The Netherlands and communicated through cryptic messages via telecommunication methods.
"We haven't found any drugs here but the involvement of the three suspects with drug trafficking crimes overseas is not acceptable and punishable according to the penal code article number 21," said Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Deputy Chief of Dubai Police, during a press conference on Monday.
Dubai Police arrested the three suspects after forming an international team which included six members of Dubai police. The investigation took over a year in order to track the gang's modus operandi and their activities.
Three suspects were arrested in Dubai, (A.S) who is considered the mastermind and his accomplices (M.A) and (K.A). According to police sources, A.S who is of Asian origin but carries an European passport and other undisclosed passports which might be partially-forged was arrested in a European country and jailed for five years in drug-related crimes before coming to the UAE and resuming his activities.
"He [A.S] was residing in the country under the guise of managing a bogus company, he was already arrested and jailed in a European country for drug-related crimes, he came to the country and continued his activities from here. A fourth suspect was also arrested but was sent to a European country that had produced a warrant for him," said Major General Al Mazeina.
The investigation and "international collaboration" between authorities in the four countries resulted in discovering the gang's last activity. The gang was planning to traffic drugs from Suriname in South America to South Africa, which in turn will be delivered to European countries.
On December 10 South African authorities arrested seven suspects and confiscated a cargo which contained 316kg of Cocaine and 100,000 pills of Mathaqualone or commonly known as Mandrax. On the same day, authorities from The Netherlands arrested three more suspects with 637kg of hashish, 524kg of marijuana, a fire arm and a large amount of money estimated to be worth around Dh500,000, while in the UK another two suspects were arrested and over Dh1.8 million was found with them.
"This operation proves thet crime-fightining by Dubai Police is not limited to the local or regional level, but we extend our activities on a global level. Dubai Police has already collaborated with other countries in investigating 39 drug-related cases in the year 2010 alone," said Major General Al Mazeina.
