JEDDAH, 26 September 2006 — Police in Jeddah arrested three Arab expatriates involved in a major illegal operation of exporting stolen spare car parts in the Waziriyah District of the city. According to police, the men would steal cars and dismantle them at a workshop in a compound.
The crime investigation division of the Jeddah police discovered the illegal operations while trying to get to the bottom of a recent increase in car thefts in the city. Police had doubts about the operators of a workshop in the area. Plainclothes policemen had recently noticed a mechanic at the workshop driving a new car to the compound and saw other mechanics dismantling the car and packing parts into wooden crates. Police raided the compound and arrested the three Arabs found working there.
During the raid the police discovered a number of cars of different models without number plates or registration documents. Some of the cars were partially dismantled and were at different stages of being dismantled. Truck engines were also found there. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the gang leader would steal a car and bring it to the compound from where parts would be separated. The gang would then export the parts to neighboring countries.
A brother of the gang leader told Arab News, “They converted the compound to a car breaking unit and several people came there looking for spare parts of large vehicles.”
The gang leader who owned the compound would reward his two accomplices generously. Police officers say the man had amassed a huge fortune by dealing in stolen parts. The sale of second hand car spare parts has grown in an unprecedented manner in the past several years.
Market sources say that the annual volume of used and imitation spare parts crossed SR400 million. The loss in the markets owing to the second hand and imitation spare parts is estimated at about SR4 billion while 33 percent of total spare parts sold in the Kingdom are imitation products.
Several car companies and distributors in the Kingdom intend to establish a company with experts to monitor the local markets to detect imitation spare parts and counter the illegal trend. The company aims to employ lawyers who will take up each case in law courts after fulfilling the legal aspects related to the matter. The move aims at containing the practice of selling imitation products in the light of the increasing demand for spare parts and cars in line with the increase in population.
Police have plans to step up the monitoring operations in all regions to stop car thefts.
