Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The cars were found at Felixstowe docks in Suffolk after a Tracker anti-theft device activated in a Mercedes ML. They were taken after thieves broke into homes to steal the car keys. Duah, whose aliases include Peter Asare and James Asan, has disappeared from his address in King’s Cross and is believed to be in the Tottenham area. He is described as slim, about 5ft 6in, with short black hair and glasses, and may be sporting a pencil moustache, more from this source….
Luxury vehicles stolen in the USA, UK and Asia are smuggled overseas for sale to fund terrorist and criminal organisations. Between January and May this year, 4,907 luxury vehicles have been reported stolen in the Malaysia for this purpose, an increase of 11.5 per cent as compared to the same period last year.
These vehicles make up part of the three million units stolen from Asia, Europe and North America annually, worth an estimated USD $21 billion. Describing the theft and smuggling of vehicles as a worldwide phenomenon, Federal CID Director Datuk Christopher Wan Soo Kee said: “Such proceeds from ill-gotten gains might be used to support and strengthen criminal or terrorist organisations. At the same, time, it destabilises developing nations.
“There is (thus), a need to understand the tactics and strategies practised by the syndicates as it would help the police perform and instigate a better alternative in battling the crime. “Trafficking and smuggling of stolen vehicles are mainly the work of structured and sophisticated global criminal groups.”
To date, the Interpol’s Automated Search Facility database for stolen vehicles contains a record of more than 2.5 million stolen vehicles from 59 countries.
High-value cars such as Porsches, Mercedes and BMWs, were shipped out of the UK after being stolen in thefts, burglaries, robberies and carjacking. The defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to handle stolen goods. The last of the gang, who shipped most of the cars to Africa, was sentenced on Friday. The scam involved shipping the cars to Mombasa in Kenya where most would then be moved to Uganda. Police recovered 92 cars worth Â£4 million but suspect at least 200 were sent abroad. The racket was cracked in a joint operation between three police forces, Hertfordshire, Essex and Kent.
Judge Foster told the gang: “The scale and sophistication of this operation cannot be overstated and a large profit has been made. “We can find no reported case that comes close to matching the magnitude of this case. “This was a sophisticated and professional conspiracy.” The only woman in the gang worked for Mercedes UK in Red Hill and used inside knowledge to supply the gang with paperwork and details for genuine Mercedes so the cars could be ringed and appear legitimate.
“I can’t comment but what I know is that the UK is interested in the cars shipped through Mombasa to Uganda and as far as the operation Umoja is concerned we registered only three cars,” said Mr Sakira. Last year the local police in conjunction with Interpol carried out an abrupt operation code named Umoja on major Kampala roads cracking down expensive cars believed to stolen from abroad, especially the United Kingdom, more from this source…..
Bill Warner Private Investigator, SEX, CRIME, CHEATERS & TERRORISM