Dubai Police have arrested five African nationals accused of stealing 45kg of gold, worth Dh8.9 million, from a Malian visitor at a hotel lobby in Deira last Friday.
The accused had concealed the gold inside electronic devices and were planning to smuggle it to their home country when they were arrested, a police source told the National's Arabic sister paper, Al Ittihad.
All the gold has been recovered.
The victim of the theft, 32, was accompanied by two other men carrying another 210kg of gold.
He was presenting his passport at the hotel reception when he was pushed aside by several men, who snatched his bag of gold and ran to a getaway car waiting outside the hotel.
The accused are said to have confessed and have been referred to public prosecution.
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