AUTHORITIES of the Bayelsa State police command have smashed a 3-man syndicate that specialised in car theft by drugging their victims, before escaping with their cars and other valuables.

Parading the suspects, namely Godwill Eshimvie Ogbory, Godbless Albert and Chukwuka Uwakwe before newsmen on Friday, in Yenagoa, the state commissioner of police, Mr. Chris Olakpe hinted that his men acted on a tip off to nab the syndicate.

He disclosed that two vehicles, including a Primera Nissan and Volkswagen Golf car were recovered from the suspects, who drugged one of their victims, identified as Samuel Amos Akpan and dumped his body in a bush along Mbiama, a border community between Bayelsa and Rivers State.

According to Olapke, “Sometime in January, 2012, the suspects pretended to have chartered a Nissan Primera car with registration number DE 183 MUS that they were going to Port Harcourt. On getting to Mbiama by Agbor Road, they diverted the driver, got him drugged and dumped him in a bush close to a lake before escaping with his vehicle.

“The suspects removed the car’s number plate and sold it to one Mr. Luke Ebhesi of Otuasega town at the rate of N350,000.”

Olakpe, who stated that the failure of the victim to return home made his relations to report the case to the police, explained that acting on information, the buyer of the stolen car was apprehended, where he parked the vehicle inside a hotel, a development that subsequently led to the arrest of the principal suspects.