Three men arrested in connection with scheme to steal rental vehicles for probable overseas shipment

An elaborate scheme involving the theft of vehicles from a car rental company for likely overseas shipment led to the arrest Thursday night of three men and the recovery of four late-model SUVs rented from Avis locations of the Nashville area by people who provided fraudulent identifications.

Abdul Alladin, 34, of Black Jack, Missouri, Rodley Balthazar, 28, of Laurel, Maryland, and Islam Johar, 29, of Woodbridge, Virginia, are each charged with three counts of vehicle theft. They are being held in lieu of bail of $75,000 each.

On Thursday evening, detectives from the MNPD’s Auto Theft Unit were alerted that a group of people believed to be responsible for the theft of dozens of rental vehicles nationwide had come to the Nashville area. . One of nine vehicles fraudulently rented during a 24-hour period, a 2022 Chevrolet Equinox SUV, came from the Avis location on West End Avenue. Working with Avis staff, detectives located the Equinox in the 2400 block of Brick Church Pike. Before detectives could move the SUV forward, it became mobile and was tracked by an MNPD helicopter to a parking lot on N. Gallatin Pike in Madison. The three men inside the Equinox, Alladin, Balthazar and Johar, were all arrested without incident. The parking lot they had been to turned out to have three other vehicles fraudulently rented from Avis on Thursday, a 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander, a 2022 Kia Sorento and a 2022 Kia Sportage. The Sportage came from a county rental office by Sumner.

The other five vehicles fraudulently rented in this region were said to have been taken out of state to be shipped to Africa.

Undercover detectives from the MNPD’s Violent Crimes Division assisted in the surveillance and arrests on Thursday evening.

The activities of Alladin, Balthazar and Johar are still under investigation by the MNPD Auto Theft, Hendersonville Police and the FBI.