Wednesday February 22, 2012

Cops bust syndicate that specialises in cannibalising stolen vehicles

By LOURDES CHARLES and A. RUBAN
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

SHAH ALAM: Police have seized more than 1,000 vehicle parts worth tens of millions of ringgit at a godown in Perak and arrested 12 members of a syndicate.

But the parts were just a fraction of what had been cannibalised from stolen vehicles.

According to the police, an average of 150 vehicles a day have been stolen across the country since 2010.

Selangor police chief Datuk Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said three suspects were arrested in Rawang last Thursday when they were trying to steal a lorry.

Another was arrested in Sabak Bernam.

They led a raiding party to a godown at Simpang in Perak on Saturday where eight more suspects were picked up.

Police recovered 1,101 lorry engines, 102 car engines and hundreds of cars and lorries which had been stripped bare.

Four of the suspects were Bangladeshis and the rest Malaysians, including a woman, Tun Hisan told reporters here yesterday.

Police have said that vehicle theft involves several syndicates working in tandem, each avoiding direct contact with the others, thus making it difficult to cripple their operations.

Different syndicates are involved in stealing a vehicle, moving it and cannibalising parts or selling it either in the country or overseas.

The older vehicles are cannibalised while the new models are usually exported to neighbouring countries as well as Europe and Africa. Four-wheel drives are reported to be especially in demand in the Middle East because of the desert conditions.

Referring to the latest case, Tun Hisan believed that the syndicate had been active for at least 13 years because one of the lorries recovered had been reported missing in 1999.

He said that police learned of the syndicate after arresting several of its members last year under the Emergency Ordinance.

The suspects have since been charged.

Tun Hisan said police were trying to trace the owners of the vehicles and engines which were still intact.

In a related development, police recovered stolen lorry cabins worth more than RM100,000 during a raid at a workshop in Changkat Jering, Perak.

Perak police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan said the recovery followed investigations on the Azlan gang, of which four members were arrested in December.

Other spare parts were found in the workshop in an oil palm estate.

“We believe the gang sent stolen lorries to the workshop to be dismantled.

The parts are then sold,” he added.

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Wednesday February 22, 2012

Cops bust syndicate that specialises in cannibalising stolen vehicles

By LOURDES CHARLES and A. RUBAN newsdesk@thestar.com.my

By LOURDES CHARLES and A. RUBAN
newsdesk@thestar.com.my