DUBAI // An armed gang that stole more than Dh3 million worth of gold from a trader’s car were each jailed for six months on Thursday.
Mexican J M, 29, and Peruvians J K, 38, and 34-year-old D R confessed to armed robbery when they appeared at Dubai Criminal Court in January.
The gang had been staking out Deira gold souq for nearly a week, looking for a someone to target.
On August 7 last year they saw Z S, whose nationality and age were not mentioned in records, leave a gold shop with a large suitcase and followed his rented car to Deira City Centre.
Z S, whose brother had asked him to buy 28 kilograms of gold worth Dh3,633,526 from a certain shop, went into the mall with a friend before the gang stole the suitcase from the car.
“Police called me at nearly 7.30pm and told me the rented car I was driving had been robbed after some men broke its windows,” said Z S.
Two of the gang broke the windows of the vehicle while the third remained in the gang’s Toyota getaway car.
Police traced the Toyota’s licence plate number using mall CCTV cameras and found it belonged to a car rental company, which led them to the men.
“When we arrested them, they were in a state of fear and confusion. J K was very scared and started begging us not to harm his wife, and he would tell us all the details,” testified A A, an Emirati police captain.
After the robbery, the captain added, the three men said they got rid of the suitcase and took the gold to Abu Dhabi.
The gang will be deported after completing their jail terms.
salamir@thenational.ae
