Dubai: Gang impersonates CID officers to steal 4.5 million Saudi riyals from man, arrested

The Dubai Public Prosecution is investigating a robbery in Jebel Ali industrial area that was carried out by a gang of 11 members impersonating as CID officers.

The group of Arab men stole 4,550,000 Saudi riyals from the victim's car before fleeing.

Police arrested five members of the gang, who confessed to their crime before their case was referred to Public Prosecution.

According to the investigation report, a police officer received a report about the robbery in Jebel Ali at the operation room.

A CID team immediately visited the site of the crime and met the victim, who told them that men (of various Arab nationalities) had stopped him, saying that they were CID officers -- before they robbed him.

He told the police that he had withdrawn 4,550,000 Saudi riyals from a money exchange that was transferred to him from a company for a business matter.

He had put the money in a brown case, which he kept inside the car, before heading towards Jebel Ali Industrial Area 2 to deliver the cash to another person identified as Omar.

The victim told the police that before meeting Omar, he went to retrieve Zamzam water bottles from a parked truck that he had left earlier.

While he was unloading the bottles, he said a white sedan (with no number plate) stopped before him and two Arab men stepped out, telling him that they were CID officers and searched him before asking for his ID. The victim identified the two accused as a Morrocan and Emirati.

They searched his car and took to the briefcase full of cash, before asking him to follow them in his car.

The victim realised he had been robbed after another car, with other members of the gang, stopped him and told him to wait as cops came to take him to the police station. But they disappeared with the bag of cash.

The investigation further revealed that Omar, who was supposed to receive the money, was the one behind the robbery. He worked as an accountant for the victim's company.

Omar and other gang members were arrested in Sharjah.

The CID team identified other suspects and arrested two in Dubai, and another one in Ajman.

The officers also seized cash (Saudi riyals) in their possession.

• Dubai