Dubai: Dubai Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested 13,398 wanted suspects and recovered Dh5.1 billion from them last year.
Most of the wanted people caught were involved in financial crimes, Major-General Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant to the Dubai Police Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said.
The department had a list of 13,625 wanted people in 2016. The number of wanted people caught last year rose 13 per cent compared to 2015.
Dubai Police have teams specialised in tracking down wanted people and they are deployed across the country. “There is positive cooperation between the public and police. People provided us with tips that led to many arrests,” he said.
The department also helped catch 227 people wanted by other countries.
The CID also got the Interpol to issue 178 red corner notices.
“We also extradited 66 suspects wanted in their countries and got custody of 27 suspects wanted by us in different cases,” Maj-Gen Al Mansouri said.
Dubai Police also arranged settlement of payments worth Dh1.3 billion with defaulters who had left the country without paying loans and other dues.
One of the most wanted suspects arrested by Dubai Police was an Arab man who had 89 financial cases, including fraud and bounced cheque cases, worth Dh153 million registered against him.
Dubai Police teams are equipped with an electronic programme that lists the wanted people and their.
“Some people were caught on arrival at the airport and some were tracked inside the country with the cooperation of other police departments. We refer them to court with their extradition file and the judge issues an order whether to extradite them or not,” Maj-Gen Al Mansouri said.
Recently, Dubai Police arrested a serial rapist from the UK and extradited him to Britain. The accused, Mohammad Avais, 50, has been sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison in the UK.
He was one of six Britons arrested in the UAE and extradited in the last five years.
“We have great cooperation with the UK in extraditing suspects. Some of the suspects were accused in cases like money laundering, rape, child sexual abuse and defrauding money of others.”
