Saturday February 16, 2013

Police smash car theft ring

By AUSTIN CAMOENS
austin@thestar.com.my

Stolen and stripped: ACP Arjunaidi (right) inspecting a vehicle recovered from the car theft syndicate.

PETALING JAYA: A syndicate specialising in the theft of old cars has been crippled after its mastermind was arrested along with seven others.

The syndicate would take “orders” for car parts of vehicles before a “specialist” would steal the car and cannibalise it for its parts.

In most cases, the car would be completely stripped of its parts before the owner could even lodge a police report.

Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Arjunaidi Mohamed said a task force led by Asst Supt Nasrol Sain Hamzah monitored the syndicate for several weeks before raiding a house in Kampung Melayu Subang on Feb 6.

“We arrested five men, including three illegal immigrants, and seized several used car parts as well as two cars and a lorry believed to have been stolen.

“The house was used as a makeshift workshop to dismantle the stolen vehicles,” he told a press conference at the district police headquarters here yesterday.

ACP Arjunaidi said a police raincoat and a number of modified tools believed to have been made for breaking into and starting the cars were seized.

He said one of the syndicate members got the raincoat from a friend whose father was a policeman.

“The thief would hang the raincoat in the stolen car he was driving to avoid getting stopped by police,” he said.

ACP Arjunaidi added that three more syndicate members were arrested in two raids in Kundang and Sungai Buloh on Feb 11.

“We believe the mastermind is a 40-year-old illegal immigrant,” he said, adding that they have been linked to 27 car thefts since the end of last year.

He said the syndicate stole cars such as Proton Saga, Proton Wira, Toyota Corolla KE, Toyota Corolla DX, Ford Telstar and the BMW 3 Series.

News

Saturday February 16, 2013

Police smash car theft ring

By AUSTIN CAMOENS austin@thestar.com.my

By AUSTIN CAMOENS
austin@thestar.com.my