The Dubai Police have recovered a diamond estimated to be worth $20 million after it had been smuggled out of the UAE in a shoe box by sea to an Asian country, a media report said.

After stealing the 9.33-carat diamond, the suspect, a guard working with the money transfer company, gave it to a relative who smuggled it out of the country, reported Emirates news agency Wam, citing a police statement.

The police arrested the suspect, who was holed up in a neighbouring emirate after switching off his phone. Tracing him was not a smoothing sailing as the police had to analyse thousands of hours of CCTV footage and questioned over 120 people.

Major General Abdullah Khalifa Al Merri, commander-in-chief of Dubai Police, said the operation to recover the blue stone, named ‘Brilliant’, was closely followed up by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior.

Colonel Mohammed Aqil Ahli, deputy director of the Department of Criminal Investigation, said the police were notified about the daring theft from the company's officials who were baffled by the crime, as the suspect had to go through multiple and complicated layers of security gates to get the deed done. Despite these security precautions, the suspect managed to enter the vault and carry out the theft.

After the police identified him, they came to know that he had cut off contact with all of his acquaintances. The police managed to trace and arrest him.