DUBAI // Four unemployed men kidnapped two gold traders as part of a plot to steal foreign currency worth more than Dh1 million, a court was told yesterday.
Bangladeshis J N, 19, M Y, 18, O A, 23, and Y T, 19, blindfolded and tied up the traders before stealing their money and dumping them in the desert, Dubai Criminal Court heard.
The victims – M R, 27, and M A, 29, also from Bangladesh – arrived in the Naif area at 9pm on January 14 this year to meet a client to buy 9kg of gold.
“We were assigned by our boss to buy the gold so we went to meet the trader when suddenly a number of men came to us and said they were police officers,” said M R.
He said the men demanded to see their ID cards, then bundled them into a white car, in which they were tied up.
“They drove for about 50 minutes before they threw us out of the car in a sandy area and drove off with the cash,” said M R.
After a couple of hours, the victims managed to free themselves and realised they were in the Mulaiha area of Sharjah. M R called his manager, who contacted the police.
On January 16, the defendants were arrested and identified by the victims.
During investigations, J N confessed to committing the crime, saying the gang had spent two days observing the victims’ daily routine in the Naif area.
He said the robbery had been planned by a fifth man, who was not named in court records. Investigations revealed that he had left the country on January 15 with his share of the stolen cash.
J N said that after the robbery, the gang members went to Ajman and divided up the loot.
The defendants were all charged with kidnapping and robbery, which they denied when they appeared in court yesterday morning.
The next hearing was scheduled for April 29.
salamir@thenational.ae
