Smuggler caught working by detectives breaking into East German car (13)
I believe the answer is:
contrabandist
'smuggler' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'caught working by detectives breaking into east german car' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'caught' could be 'c' (cricket abbreviation) and 'c' is present in the answer.
'working' could be 'on' (e.g. a machine is working or on) and 'on' is located in the answer.
'detectives' could be 'dis' (Detective Inspectors, DIs) and 'dis' is found in the answer.
'car' could be 't' and 't' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for contrabandist that I've seen before include "Smuggler" , "Illegal trader" , "Runner" , "Neglecter of duty" .)