Gang arrested over spate of van thefts

Sharjah: Police on Sunday arrested a gang running a clandestine business in stolen mini vans.

The gang comprised eight men of Asian and Iranian nationalities who forged documents to smuggle the vehicles out of the country, an official at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Sharjah Police said.

The arrests come in the wake of a number of complaints received by police over the last few weeks about the theft of mini buses with the capacity to seat up to 15 passengers.

During investigations, Sharjah Police found that the stolen vehicles were rented out to companies but not before they had been kept off the roads for long periods of time.

The arrests came after police intercepted a vehicle in Sharjah on the suspicion that it had been stolen. On checking the vehicle's registration, it was found that the documents had been forged. Documents of other vehicles found in the possession of the driver were also found to be forged.

Upon interrogation, the driver explained that he had received the vehicle from S.K.H., an Iranian national, who had asked him to drive it down to Al Hamriya Port in Sharjah.

A CID team formed to follow up the case came to the conclusion that S.K.H. had smuggled a number of other vehicles using forged documents.

Sharjah Police, in coordination with Dubai Police, subsequently raided the apartment of S.K.H. and arrested the suspect, in addition to two other suspects of Iranian nationality, identified as K. and Dh.

During the raid, police seized an assortment of export number plates, engine chassis numbers, mobile phones, video cameras, car keys, stereo systems, lap top computers, automotive spare parts and bank documents.

The eight suspects confessed to a number of van thefts and that the stolen vehicles were later smuggled out of the country. The case has been referred to Sharjah Prosecution.