Looted from Dhaka, sold in Chattogram

Divided in multiple groups, they mostly targeted shopping malls in Dhaka -- each team assigned a specific task.

They had a team for recce, another for breaking locks, a cover up team, a backup team, a "marketing" team to sell looted valuables and finally a "legal" team to release arrested members.

They conducted at least two "operations" each month and the racket is involved in more than 50 theft incidents in the last couple of years in Dhaka.

Though the thefts were mostly conducted in the capital, they never sold the stolen goods in Dhaka, rather at their native districts -- Chattogram and Cumilla.

The Detective Branch (DB) of police got trace of this "theft racket" after arresting two members, including the ringleader, from the capital's Jatrabari area yesterday.

The arrestees are Akash Hossain Rubel (24), group leader, and Safar alias Sumon (22).

Law enforcers arrested the two while investigating a case filed with Shahbagh Police Station, regarding theft in two shops in a cell phone market in Motalib Plaza.

Around nine members of the group took part in the theft incident and took away 95 cellphones and Tk 6.08 lakh in cash from two shops on July 23.

Mishu Biswas, additional deputy commissioner of DB (Ramna division) police, told The Daily Star yesterday that the racket has around 15 to 20 members. All hail from Cumilla and Chattogram.

The group members come to Dhaka twice a month and stay at hotels in groups in Jatrabari, he said.

Biswas said the group members first send two teams to conduct recce at shopping malls. Based on their reports, around 10 of them would go to the market during closing time.

They will select a closed shop and one team will use umbrellas or banners to cover while the other team will break the lock, said the official.

Some of them will enter the shop and start stealing valuables while others will remain outside to keep an eye on security movement so that they can alert the rest, said Mishu, quoting arrestees.

"It took them around 10-15 minutes… once the operation ended, they left the capital and went back to their residences in Cumilla and Chattogram with the looted goods," he said.

For safety, the racket members used online applications to communicate with each other or family members, said Biswas, who led the drive to arrest the two.

They also had around 100-150 non-biometric SIM cards on them, he added.

Police said they have used technical helps and analysed around 2,000 phone calls to trace the criminals. Law enforcers also got the CCTV footage of the market but could not detect them as they were wearing masks.

In primary interrogation, Rubel said they have separate members who sell the looted valuables. They sell the looted phones in Chattogram in half price.

Rubel is wanted in five to six cases. Last year, he was arrested by DB police while looting a jewellery shop in Uttara and got released from jail few months back, according to police.

ADC Biswas said they got names of other members from the arrestees. "We are working on tracing their location," he added.