"Trying to Save Fuel Costs...", Two Arabs Arrested for Smuggling Stolen Agricultural Machinery Overseas

Glaring at a Tractor Parked in a Paddy Field at Night, Smuggled and Moved to Busan Port on the Same Day

CCTV footage capturing suspects loading stolen agricultural machinery onto a truck and fleeing [Provided by Paju Police Station]

[Asia Economy Reporter La Young-cheol] Two Arab men were arrested by the police for stealing expensive agricultural machinery left overnight in rice paddies and fields and selling them abroad.

The Paju Police Station in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 11th that "two foreigners in their mid-30s, including Mr. A, were arrested on charges of special theft, and further crimes are under investigation."

Mr. A and others are suspected of stealing five tractors and other agricultural machinery worth about 300 million won from farms in the Paju and Goyang areas of Gyeonggi Province between September and November last year, then smuggling and selling them to the Middle East and other regions.

According to the police investigation, Mr. A and his accomplices had worked for several years at a ranch in Paju and targeted tractors that were parked for long periods in rice paddies and fields with few people around and no closed-circuit television (CCTV) installed. They used master keys to steal the machinery late at night.

In particular, they meticulously prepared for the crime by renting warehouses and containers near the crime scenes in advance to hide the stolen agricultural machinery, selecting trailers to move the machinery to Busan on the same day, and choosing export agencies.

The police tracked Mr. A and others through CCTV analysis and domestic export agencies, arrested them, requested a delay in the ship's departure from the shipping company, and recovered two tractors waiting at Busan New Port, returning them to the victims. The remaining three tractors were confirmed to have already been sold abroad.

The police have investigated about 30 local import dealers and related domestic parties and confirmed three additional crimes committed by Mr. A and his group, expanding the investigation to determine if there are more victims.

A police official stated, "Rural areas have many CCTV blind spots, making them vulnerable to crime, so expensive agricultural machinery can always be a target for theft." He urged, "Due to fuel costs, do not leave agricultural machinery in rice paddies or fields; instead, store them at home or in village agricultural machinery warehouses."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.