Stolen Car Racket From the UK to Africa Still Funding Terrorism, Face of suspect in racket that shipped stolen cars to Africa.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

July 14th, 2010…..Police have released the name and picture of a suspect in the theft of expensive cars from the drives of homes in London and the South-East to sell abroad.  Jeffrey Duah, 40, from Ghana, is being sought after 11 stolen vehicles worth more than £369,000 were discovered in seven containers ready to be shipped to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. Duah is believed to be involved in booking the containers.
 
The cars were found at Felixstowe docks in Suffolk after a Tracker anti-theft device activated in a Mercedes ML. They were taken after thieves broke into homes to steal the car keys.  Duah, whose aliases include Peter Asare and James Asan, has disappeared from his address in King’s Cross and is believed to be in the Tottenham area. He is described as slim, about 5ft 6in, with short black hair and glasses, and may be sporting a pencil moustache, more from this source….

INTERPOL REPORT; Vehicle crime is a highly organized criminal activity affecting the whole world. It has been clearly established that it is often linked to organized crime and terrorism. The vehicles are not only stolen for their own sake; sometimes they are trafficked to finance other crimes. They can also be used as bomb carriers or in the perpetration of other crimes.

Luxury vehicles stolen in the USA, UK and Asia are smuggled overseas for sale to fund terrorist and criminal organisations.  Between January and May this year, 4,907 luxury vehicles have been reported stolen in the Malaysia for this purpose, an increase of 11.5 per cent as compared to the same period last year.

These vehicles make up part of the three million units stolen from Asia, Europe and North America annually, worth an estimated USD $21 billion.  Describing the theft and smuggling of vehicles as a worldwide phenomenon, Federal CID Director Datuk Christopher Wan Soo Kee said:  “Such proceeds from ill-gotten gains might be used to support and strengthen criminal or terrorist organisations. At the same, time, it destabilises developing nations.

“There is (thus), a need to understand the tactics and strategies practised by the syndicates as it would help the police perform and instigate a better alternative in battling the crime.  “Trafficking and smuggling of stolen vehicles are mainly the work of structured and sophisticated global criminal groups.”

To date, the Interpol’s Automated Search Facility database for stolen vehicles contains a record of more than 2.5 million stolen vehicles from 59 countries.

PRIOR ARRESTS Kampala — A UK court on Friday handed down sentences ranging between 12 months and eight years to a gang, including six Ugandans, that were part of a £4 million stolen car racket.  Luton Crown Court convicted the gang members for masterminding the UK’s biggest ever stolen car racket.
 
High-value cars such as Porsches, Mercedes and BMWs, were shipped out of the UK after being stolen in thefts, burglaries, robberies and carjacking. The defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to handle stolen goods.  The last of the gang, who shipped most of the cars to Africa, was sentenced on Friday. The scam involved shipping the cars to Mombasa in Kenya where most would then be moved to Uganda.  Police recovered 92 cars worth £4 million but suspect at least 200 were sent abroad. The racket was cracked in a joint operation between three police forces, Hertfordshire, Essex and Kent.

Judge Richard Foster said the scale of the conspiracy was unprecedented and what could be proved was just the “tip of the iceberg”. The gang set up an elaborate system to load the cars into containers and ship them out of the UK using false paperwork and disguising them as containers full of electrical goods.
 
Judge Foster told the gang: “The scale and sophistication of this operation cannot be overstated and a large profit has been made. “We can find no reported case that comes close to matching the magnitude of this case.  “This was a sophisticated and professional conspiracy.” The only woman in the gang worked for Mercedes UK in Red Hill and used inside knowledge to supply the gang with paperwork and details for genuine Mercedes so the cars could be ringed and appear legitimate.

Abdu Gatsinzi, 37, of Brynmaer Road, south west London, eight years. Wycliffe Ssali, 31, of Harrowden Court, Luton, eight years. Martin Clark, 46, of Antlers, Canvey Island, seven years. Raymond Severn, 54, of Bramble Lane, Upminster, Essex, six and a half years. Godfrey Esimu, 34, of Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington, in north London, five years. Gary Lambourne, 25, Creswick Walk, Bromley, Kent, seven years. Allen Kalisa, 30, of Brynmaer Road, south west London, two years. Patrick Eseru, 42, of Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington, in north London, for 15 months. Shafiq Kamuhanda, 35, of Grantham Road, east London, three years. Maqsood Ahmed, 36, of Springfield Drive, Ilford, received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years. Ton Leo, 35, of Tollgate Road, east London, received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years.  Colin Walter, 23, of Portree Street, Bow, east London, was handed a 12 month community service order and ordered to pay £1,000 costs. Speaking to Sunday Monitor, Interpol Uganda chief, Moses Sakira, said for the time he has held that position three cars have been sent back to London.

“I can’t comment but what I know is that the UK is interested in the cars shipped through Mombasa to Uganda and as far as the operation Umoja is concerned we registered only three cars,” said Mr Sakira. Last year the local police in conjunction with Interpol carried out an abrupt operation code named Umoja on major Kampala roads cracking down expensive cars believed to stolen from abroad, especially the United Kingdom, more from this source…..

Bill Warner Private Investigator, SEX, CRIME, CHEATERS & TERRORISM

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