The seized gold artifact.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

Dubai Police arrested a gang of five Arabs for attempting to sell antique coins that were smuggled into the UAE without a permit or licence from the competent authorities.

The defendants were referred to the Public Prosecution and from there to the Court of First Instance, which fined them Dhs250,000 and ordered the seized antique coins to be confiscated.

The case dated back to October last year when the Environmental Crimes Division at the Anti-Organized Crime Department, Dubai Police, received a tip-off that an Arab possessed antique coins that had been smuggled from an Arab country and brought into the UAE illegally and was in the process of selling them for up to Dhs2.4 million.

The other suspects offered an undercover police agent a gold artifact that they wanted to sell and told him that they possessed additional quantities of it.

A tight plan was set when a Dubai Police agent acted as the buyer and was handed a bag containing bundles of banknotes of US dollar denomination to lure the suspects and catch them red-handed as soon as the deal was concluded.

The defendants agreed with the undercover agent to meet in a major hotel in Dubai to negotiate and conclude the deal.

After taking the necessary legal measures, a trap was set as the buyer agreed with the perpetrators to buy the antique coin sample in their possession and 22 antique coins of the same type and weight for $400,000. At this point, the police raided the place and arrested the suspects.

According to the official documents, the undercover agent persuaded the perpetrators that he had strong connections to an influential person in the UAE who loved collecting rare pieces and asked them to supply as many artifacts as possible.

The documents indicated that the perpetrators, who owned several companies operating in jewelry trade in the UAE, were fully aware that these coins were antique.

Meanwhile, in its letter to the court, the Dubai Municipality indicated that the seizures included 22 antique dinars of gold dating back to the Abbasid period and consequently the seizures were considered as antique according to the federal law no. 11 for 2017 regarding antiquities.