The Police on Tuesday in Abuja said they have arrested 71 suspects over various criminal activities across the country and recovered tramadol worth N54 million from one of the syndicate gangs.
The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Frank Mba, who disclosed this at a news conference, said the suspects were arrested during the pre-Christmas mop-up operation of the police.
He said that nine AK 47 riffles, three assorted weapons, two vehicles, one motorcycle and over 18 mobile phones of assorted makes were recovered from the suspects.
Mba said that two of the suspects were arrested with 4,000 packs of tramadol tablets and other incriminating items in Bauchi on their way to Potiskum.
He said that the arrest was in line with the understanding of the police that consumption of illicit drugs had over the years fueled violent crimes.
According to him, we believe that just as weapons fuel violent crimes, illicit drug fuel violent crimes by giving the criminals the courage and leverage to commit.
He said one of the suspects was arrested in connection with anti-tracking gadgets used to deactivate tracking devices in cars, phone and other equipment during a car robbery operation.
“With the equipment, these criminal elements are able to move stolen vehicles from one place to another and keep the tracking systems in the vehicles inactive.
“Three of the four anti-tracking gadgets procured from one of the online shops by the suspect had been recovered and we are making efforts to recover the remaining one.
“What the suspect does is to rent the gadget out to robbery syndicates who steal exotic and expensive cars.
“The idea is to beat the searchlight of the tracking companies and make the detection difficult until they get to their final destination,” he said.
Mbar said a two-man gang that specialises in robbing people at ATM points was among the suspects arrested during the mop-up operation.
According to him, the operational system of the suspects is to go to the ATM point, loiter around and when you are trying to make a withdrawal, they approach you on the pretext to offer assistance.
“In the process, two things could happen, it is either that, they help you and in the process, exchange your ATM card with their card that is inactive, making you leave the ATM point without cash.
“Or they help you to make the withdrawal and exchange your card with theirs making you to leave the ATM point with cash and their defective ATM card,” he added.
The FPRO said that a total of 184 ATM cards of different banks with different names were recovered from the suspects.
Mba said a three-man gang that specialises in “one chance”, targeting women using a Mazda saloon car, were among the suspects arrested in Abuja.
According to him, what they do is that they go around in the car, pretending to be looking for passengers and in the process looking for women that are not too strong for easy operation.
Mba said that another two-man gang responsible for housebreaking within the FCT, particularly around Gwarimpa axis were among the suspects arrested.
The FPRO said the mode of operation of the suspects was to move from house to house breaking into homes and offices and stealing all kinds of electronic gadgets.
He said that 18 television sets of different make and sizes were recovered from the suspects.