Dubai: An attempt to smuggle a large amount of stolen gold ornaments and valuable watches outside the country through Dubai International Airport was foiled by the security here, according to a top police official.
A group of three Georgian men were arrested on charges of robbing and attempting to smuggle stolen items. The case was referred to the court on Sunday after lengthy investigation by the police to resolve the case.
The members of the gang came to the UAE on a visit visa and it was not their first visit, according to Major Abdullah Faisal Al Dossary, Director of Terminal 2 at the airport.
He said the three men were regular visitors to the country and the stolen items were robbed from villas in Dubai.
Major General Pilot Ahmad Mohammad Bin Thani, Chief of Airport Security Department at Dubai Police, said that the three members of the gang who tried to smuggle the gold and the watches had actually hidden them in their private parts. They were arrested while trying to leave Dubai airport on a flydubai flight.
Maj Gen Bin Thani said the gang members were arrested at the departure lounge of Terminal 2.
“The gang members were arrested with 1.5 kilograms of gold ornaments and expensive watches in their possession,” said Maj Gen Bin Thani.
He told Gulf News the gang members distributed the gold and watches among themselves so they would not attract police attention.
Maj Gen Bin Thani said that the airport’s police security inspectors suspected one of the gang members when he became nervous as he was passing through the metal detector.
“When the man passed through the inspection device and the machine emitted an alert, the suspect was in a state of confusion,” he said.
Maj Gen Bin Thani said the security took the suspect to a private room for an intensive search and some of the ornaments and watches were recovered from him.
He added that after his arrest police reviewed the CCTV footage at the airport where they discovered that the suspect had come to the country with another two men. A police team headed by Brigadier Ali Atiq Bin Lahej, Deputy Director of the police airport’s security department, arrested the remaining gang members in coordination with the Special Task Intervention Unit at the airport’s Security Department of Dubai Police.
