DUBAI 26 July 2018: The Dubai Police has recovered a diamond estimated to be worth $20 million after it had been smuggled out of the UAE in a shoe box by sea to an Asian country.
After stealing the 9.33-carat diamond, the suspect, a guard working with the money transfer company, gave it to a relative who smuggled it out of the country, the police said.
The police arrested the suspect, who was holed up in a neighbouring emirate after switching off his phone. Tracing him was not smooth sailing as the police had to analyse thousands of hours of CCTV footage and questioned over 120 people, said Wam.
Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, said the operation to recover the blue stone, named ‘Brilliant’, was closely followed up by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior.
Colonel Mohammed Aqil Ahli, Deputy Director of the Department of Criminal Investigation, said the police were notified about the daring theft from the company’s officials who were baffled by the crime, as the suspect had to go through multiple and complicated layers of security gates to get the deed done. Despite these security precautions, the suspect managed to enter the vault and carry out the theft.
After the police identified him, they came to know that he had cut off contact with all of his acquaintances. The police managed to trace and arrest him.
The number of employees authorised to enter the security gates is reduced after each gate is passed. At the third and last gate, the security center is opened by strict security standards, requiring three officials to open it at the same time. The first has a secret key, the second has a secret code, and the third has an electronic secret code that automatically changes after every minute.
Despite all these precautionary measures, however, an unknown person was able to violate all these procedures and steal the rare diamond.
The police team was able to analyze about 8,620 hours of film, checking more than 120 people, and in record time, the team was able to identify the perpetrator, which showed that the accused is an Asian national and works in the same company.
Colonel Mohammed Ahli said that the suspect, during his interrogation, reported that he committed the crime a week before the start of his vacation and agreed with one of his relatives to smuggle the diamond by hiding it in an sports shoe and shipping it to his home by sea.