Four men, suspected of bootlegging, have been charged in the Court of First Instance with resisting on-duty police officers while they were executing an arrest order.

The four accused, all Filipinos, aged between 28-48, are accused of behaving aggressively towards five on-duty cops assigned with tracking and arresting bootleggers.

One of them, a 28-year-old mechanic, is also accused of physically assaulting a police officer and punching him in the face, causing him an injury that necessitated hospital treatment.

The incidents took place on December 22 and 24 last year, and were registered at Al Rashidiya police station.

"We were tipped off by a reliable source about a group of Asians selling alcohol in the industrial Ras al Khor area.

I went there with two lieutenants and another corporal. We spotted the main accused standing between trucks and selling liquor to people from carton boxes. I went with another officer to talk to him while the others waited at a distance. I asked him whether he had beer to sell and then told him to bring me two cans, giving him Dh20," said a police corporal from the anti-bootlegging section of the Dubai police.

"As the defendant (the mechanic) was busy bringing the cans from below a truck, we told him we are officers from the Criminal Investigation Department. He tried to flee but we managed to nab him. As I grabbed him by his shirt, he punched me in my face and then rode in a car with three others. An ambulance was called and I was taken to hospital."

Another police officer said the defendants' car was impounded after it was found left in the same area and liquor bottles were seized.

"We arrested the four accused two days later in Ras Al Khor area. They were brought under control even though they put up a stiff resistance. We took them to the CID".

The mechanic admitted during interrogation he had been engaged in bootlegging activities for one month and that he used to bring the liquor from warehouses in Ras Al Khaimah.

Source: Khaleej Times