Luck 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 on Wednesday.

Our correspondent learnt that the suspects took some stolen cars to a refurbishing centre located along the Direct Labour Agency (DLA) area but unknown to them, their whereabouts was leaked to the police who trailed them to the centre following a tip off.

The 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 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, and were rounded up.

Speaking on the arrest, a senior police officer, who was part of the operation, told journalists that the suspects had been on the wanted list of police, and were allegedly responsible for a lot of car snatching incidents in the state.

He said the gang is an inter-state crime syndicate that specialised 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 have 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.”

He said the suspects are currently in custody awaiting trial.

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