Damas heist cracked in 48 hours, 4 nabbed

The Sharjah Police have cracked the jewellery heist and break-in at Lulu Centre in Rolla area within 48 hours with the arrest of four Pakistani nationals. An undisclosed quantity of gold jewellery worth millions of dirhams was stolen from Damas outlet by thieves who entered the shopping centre at Al Arooba Road after breaking the front glass panel in the early hours of Monday.

Giving details about the case on Wednesday, Colonel Abdullah Mubarak Al Dokhan, Deputy Director of the Sharjah Police, said the suspects, including two taxi drivers, were arrested before they could smuggle the booty out of the country. The police operations room alerted the Criminal Investigation Department in the early hours of Monday that a warning alarm had rung as the shop is connected to the operations room.

“Police officers rushed to the area and found the front facade of the jewellery outlet facing a side road broken. Jewellery pieces were scattered on the shop floor. On summoning the shop supervisors, they confirmed that gold ornaments worth millions of dirhams displayed on the shelves were missing,” Col Al Dokhan said.

Forensic experts inspected the scene and took fingerprints, which showed that more than one person was involved. An investigation team was formed. In coordination with the Ajman Police, one of the suspects, identified as R.S.A, was arrested from the neighbouring emirate. “It was found out that R.S.A was deported from the country in 2010 but he infiltrated back into the country and was deported again. He managed to enter the country illegally again in the beginning of this year,” the senior officer said.

Another suspect, M.S.M, who was with R.S.A at the time, was also arrested. Both of them confessed to robbing the shop along with two partners. Asked about the whereabouts of their partners and the stolen booty, they said part of the jewellery was in R.S.A’s house located in Al Satwa area of Dubai. In cooperation with the Dubai Police, the ornaments were seized.

The police later arrested the other two suspects, who are taxi drivers. They led the cops to a car in which one of them had hidden his share of stolen jewellery. On searching the cabs of the both, some of the stolen jewellery was found. Asked about the remaining items, one of them confessed that he had hidden them in his house in Al Nahda area. On searching the house, the remaining jewellery pirces were seized.

• UAE
• Dubai
• Sharjah