Luck, Wednesday, ran against members of a notorious car snatching syndicate in Delta with groups in different parts of Nigeria, as three suspected members of the gang were arrested by police detectives in Asaba, the Delta State capital.
Our correspondent learnt that the suspects took some stolen cars to a refurbishing centre located along the Direct Labour Agency (DLA) area of the state capital but unknown to them, their whereabouts was leaked to the police who trailed them to the centre.
It was gathered that nemesis caught up with the suspects following a tip off that the members of the gang had taken a stolen car to a car painting workshop in area for refurbishing.
Following the tip off, detectives stormed the workshop close to a popular petrol servicing station and arrested two painters working on the suspected stolen cars.
When asked about the owner of the cars, they told the police that the people who brought the cars had gone out and would be back in few hours time to claim the cars.
Following the information, the police detectives planted back the two painters in order to lure the suspects back to claim the stolen vehicles.
As expected, the suspects within few hours came to the workshop to inspect the cars whether the painters had finished the refurbishing.
Immediately they arrived and with the detectives positioned in strategic places close to the workshop, they were rounded up and arrested.
Speaking on the arrest of the suspects, a senior police officer who was part of the operation told journalists that the suspects had been on the wanted list of police and that they were allegedly responsible for a lot of car snatching incidents in the state.
He said the gang is an inter-state crime syndicate that specialized in snatching flashy cars. He said the group has members in different states of the country with whom they execute the illegal business.
According him “one of the suspects has just opened up, confessed and led police to Onitsha where they parked a stolen car they wanted to sell before the arrest.
“As I am talking to you now, police has recovered the car from Onitsha and currently investigating the activities of the gang.
“We also recovered other two cars from the workshop suspected to have been stolen from their owners as the painters and the suspects could not give satisfactory account of the cars, we have commenced interrogation of the suspects and investigation into the matter, soon activities of all these hoodlums with be put to an end”, the police officer assured.
He said the suspects are currently in custody awaiting trial.
