British police found two luxury cars, which were reported stolen, and belong to two English Premier League football stars, in shipping containers destined for the port of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The two players – whose identities were not revealed – had their cars stolen in the counties surrounding the capital, London.
The Essex Police Stolen Vehicle Intelligence Unit recovered the two cars, one a Ferrari and the other a Range Rover, out of 517 cars or vehicle parts with a total value of more than £16m.
The security search team traced the stolen vehicles to shipping containers, which were due to sail to Dubai from London Gateway in Thurrock. So far, no one has been arrested in connection with vehicle theft.
A security official on the search team said, “Every stolen car is important to us, and we are working as hard as we can to get them back to their owners. We’re cracking down on car thieves, we know what to look for, and we know how and where they operate.”
One of the English Premier League footballers went to Al Wahda headquarters to pick up his car, and praised the work of the search team.
“He was really grateful and surprised at how far we’d gone,” said Phil Pintello, one of the research team. His car was obviously very dear to him, and he was very impressed with the service he received from the police, even though he was playing for one of my club’s biggest rivals, he was such a gentle and down-to-earth guy. It was good to help him.”
