Police in Jeddah have arrested a group of Africans who targeted customers leaving banks with large quantities of money, using members inside the bank to identify targets and women on the outside to prevent victims attempting to pursue them. Police obtained their first lead in the case when a Saudi man informed Al-Kandara Police Station that he had been attacked and robbed of an envelope containing SR2,000 as he exited a bank on the Makkah Road. The victim said that two males of African appearance approached him and struck him before making off with the envelope in a car parked nearby in which a third person was waiting. Working on a description of the car, police located the three suspects and took them in for questioning, during which it transpired that they were part of a wider gang that worked together targeting bank customers. Surveillance was set up at a residential site identified during questioning, and after approximately 36 hours undercover officers tailed members of the gang and observed them keeping a watch on a bank. As the gang prepared to accost a customer outside the police moved in. Following further enquiries a total of seven persons, two of them women, were arrested and confessed to violent robbery of bank customers and theft from bank customers' vehicles after they had withdrawn money and parked elsewhere to visit shops or pray in mosques. Investigations revealed that the group operated at a variety of banks across the city and that one gang member inside the bank was tasked with observing which customers withdrew large amounts of cash. He would then identify targets to his accomplices outside by telephone. It further transpired that the group used its two female members to attend the scenes of their crimes immediately afterwards and ascertain how much information their victims were able to provide to the police, or impede any attempts to pursue the gang. Nawwaf Al-Bouq, spokesman for Jeddah Police, warned of the risks of carrying around large quantities of money and appealed to the public to be vigilant. “The Ministry of Interior has ordered that accountants be accompanied to and from banks,” Al-Bouq said. “Great care should be taken when carrying around such large amounts of money, while the public can act as the eyes of the police on the street by keeping their eyes open and reporting any suspicious behavior.”
