Thirteen members of a car smuggling gang have been arrested in an international police operation. That reports the police in Osnabruck, Germany. The leader of the gang is a 66-year-old Dutchman who ten days ago was arrested in the Ter Apel Canal in Groningen.
Most of the cars were stolen in Germany and then fitted with forged number plates in the Netherlands. The cars were then shipped via the port of Rotterdam to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
This mainly concerns luxury cars such as a Mercedes AMG GT R with a value of 230,000 euros, a Porsche Carrera 4 GTS (130,000 euros) and a BMW X5 M50d (100,000 euros). Cars from rental companies in France were also stolen and resold through auctions. In total, the stolen cars had a value of 2.5 million euros, the German police said.
Cigarette factory
The investigation into the gang lasted three years and started after the police noticed that many cars were stolen in the Osnabrück region and in North Rhine-Westphalia.
An illegal cigarette factory was also accidentally found in Ter Apelkanaal. Police found 1.5 million cigarettes there. In Lithuania, 60 forged documents of cars and 400,000 euros in cash were found.
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