Nigerian Police said they arrested three suspected members of a notorious armed robbery syndicate in Kaduna and recovered 10 stolen vehicles in an operation carried out on 16 March 2026 by operatives of the Force Intelligence Department Special Tactical Squad.
The suspects were identified as Abubakar Musa, 36, Hassan Umar, 30, and Joshua Raphael, 20. Police said Musa was the alleged ringleader, a dismissed corporal of the Nigerian Army who had been impersonating a serving soldier to evade arrest.
Anthony Placid said the arrests and recoveries followed sustained security operations in Kaduna State. The vehicles recovered included Toyota Hilux trucks, Toyota Corolla cars, a Pontiac Vibe GT, a Honda vehicle, a Lexus car and a Toyota RAV4 SUV, and several were found without registration numbers.
Police said the group specialised in stealing vehicles and moving them across locations after altering or removing registration details to hide their identity and ownership. Efforts were ongoing to track down other fleeing members of the syndicate and recover additional stolen property, Anthony Okon Placid said.
The arrests fit into a wider run of operations the police briefed for the first quarter of 2026. On 7 March 2026, operatives of the same tactical squad arrested Abdumumini Abubakar, Maikano Gambo, Saleh Thompson and Oyonyi Odango in Tayu, Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State, where police said they recovered four AK-47 rifles, 80 rounds of 7.62 x 39mm ammunition, one locally fabricated pistol and 20 rounds of 9mm ammunition.
Then on 18 March 2026, police said Abubakar Yusuf and Sani Abubakar were arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Sidi Abubakar in Toto, Nasarawa State. In that case, police said a ransom of Six Million Naira was demanded and that Yusuf had approached the victim’s relative to pay One Million Five Hundred Thousand Naira.
For Kaduna, the latest vehicle-theft arrests land in a state that has in recent years grappled with banditry, kidnapping and urban armed robbery, and where security agencies have intensified operations in Kaduna metropolis and Zaria. What police said they recovered on 16 March points to an organised group moving stolen vehicles across locations, and investigators are still trying to reach the others who got away.
