Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star correspondent

Lebanese security forces successfully apprehended one of the country’s most wanted stolen car dealers on Tuesday, following a chase in Sidon.
Over 100 arrest warrants had previously been issued against Ali Abu Zummarin, a Palestinian. He has been accused of buying stolen cars, dismantling them and then selling them in pieces after changing their colors and serial numbers.
His arrest followed an ambush outside the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, which he used as a base for his operations.
Security sources said they had received information about a possible attempt by Abu Zummarin to flee the camp. They subsequently organized patrols along the camp’s perimeter in coordination with judicial police and army intelligence.
Abu Zummarin was arrested by a team of detectives near Sidon’s serail roundabout. His accomplice, a relative who had been waiting outside the camp, managed to escape.
The security sources said Abu Zummarin surrendered after a chase by detectives, who fired several warning shots.
According to Palestinian sources, the Palestinian Security Committee in Ain al-Hilweh had stormed Abu Zummarin’s home in the camp several days earlier, detaining his brother.
Zummarin’s wife was wounded during the raid, but her husband escaped and had remained at large.
The committee had urged Abu Zummarin, via his family, to give himself up by Tuesday night or else he and his brothers would be considered wanted criminals ­ meaning they would face being banned from the camp.
The committee followed up the matter with a meeting at the office of the Palestinian group Al-Kifah Al-Musallah in Ain al-Hilweh, where a plan was being drawn to arrest Abu Zummarin.
Abu Zummarin had disappeared after the committee was formed in October 2001.
However, he emerged in the camp a few days ago, prompting the committee to move against him, storm his home and detain his brother before Lebanese security forces were finally able to arrest him.

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