The stolen cars are parked at the impound area in Ajman.

Ajman Police busted the largest gang for stealing and smuggling cars inside the UAE and arrested 12 of its members on charges of stealing around 83 cars from an emirate for smuggling to neighbouring countries.

The arrest was part of one of a most complicated operation called ‘Containers of Darkness’ and was the fruit of over 3 months of pursuit and investigation.

During a virtual press conference held at Ajman Police General Headquarters on Tuesday, Major General Sheikh Sultan Bin Abdullah Al Nuaimi, Commander-in-Chief of Ajman Police, said the gang depended on people coming to the UAE on visit visas to execute its plan to steal cars.

These visitors used to rent cars from rent-a-car offices across the UAE before they sold them to other people and leave the country, which made it difficult for the CID agents to track the suspects, he said.

The case started with several complaints received from car rental offices in Ajman in which they complained about the failure of some customers to return the rented cars on the agreed time and pay the due rent, Al Nuaimi said. Following intensive investigations, the police discovered that the people who rented all the reported cars had already left the country and that a number of similar complaints had been filed in other emirates.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Saeed Al Nuaimi, CID Director, a CID team was formed to investigate and pursue the suspects. A number of Asians were consequently arrested on charges of renting vehicles from car rental offices across the UAE and delivering the same to another group of the gang against half the price of the vehicles, he said. Another group used to take the vehicles to a UAE port for shipment by sea in closed containers as home appliances, he added. Based on this, a number of shipping companies were contacted and asked to return the containers carrying the stolen cars to the UAE, he said.

Al Nuaimi affirmed that Ajman Police managed to arrest 12 gang members from Arab and Asian nationalities and to recover 55 out of 83 carts worth Dhs6.35 million. Some 38 of these cars were recovered from the ports of neighbouring Arab countries and were all in a good condition, Al Nuaimi said, adding that the police were still on the hunt of two other people outside the UAE and were tracking the cars that entered the Arab countries for recovery in co-operation with the Interpol.