NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police Crime Branch has busted an international vehicle theft syndicate involved in smuggling of stolen high-end luxury cars and arrested eight individuals associated with the racket, officials said on Friday, adding that 15 stolen vehicles were recovered during the investigation.
The accused have been identified as Taj Mohammad (40), Mateen Khan (24), Nagender Singh (46), Nadeem (38), residents of Uttar Pradesh, Imran Khan (25), Akbar (20), Manish Arya (48), residents of Delhi, and Kunal Subhash Jaiswal (24), resident of Mumbai, officials added.
According to cops, a probe was initiated after the arrest of Taj, a key player in the syndicate, last year revealing significant details about the gang’s structure and operations.
The investigations led to the arrest of several associates and recovery of stolen vehicles from various locations in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Amir Pasha, the alleged mastermind behind this international vehicle theft racket, operates remotely from Dubai, orchestrating the entire network, a senior police officer said. Pasha ensures the seamless functioning of the syndicate by supplying advanced programming devices, blank keys, and other tools necessary for bypassing vehicle security systems, she added.
Pasha manages the syndicate’s finances from operatives across India while maintaining strict anonymity among members. His strategy involves compartmentalising the network so that no individual within the syndicate knows the identity or role of others, thereby minimising risks and ensuring the criminal activities remain undetected. This level of organisation and control has allowed Amir Pasha to sustain the syndicate’s operations across multiple states for years.
Taj was a core operative in the syndicate for over a decade. He was responsible for coordinating thefts and delivering stolen vehicles to various receivers across India. Taj maintained direct communication with syndicate leaders, including Pasha, to execute vehicle thefts across Delhi-NCR, DCP (Crime) Apoorva Gupta said.
The gang identified high-end vehicles parked in low-surveillance areas or roadside locations, focusing on popular models for their high resale value.
They used tools like advanced key programming device to hack ECM codes, disable security systems, and generate new keys for stolen vehicles and employed scanning devices to disable GPS trackers, rendering vehicles untraceable, the senior officer said.