Car theft gang busted; 7 fall

A well-entrenched car theft gang was believed busted following the arrest of seven suspected members, including a woman, in a series of police operations launched by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Bulacan, Tarlac and Baguio City.

Chief Superintendent Nestorio Gualberto, CIDG director, identified the suspects, who were mostly Filipino-Chinese, as Philip Pablo, 24; Evangeline Bacolod, 20; Hans Anton Tan; Abelardo Chavez, 28; Alex Pangilinan, 26; Rely Jalimao, 32; and Dexter Salvacion.

The rounding up of the suspects, resulted in the recovery of a stolen black Mitsubishi L-300 van and a silver gray Toyota car with license plates UTV-645 and several cellular phones.

Pablo and Bacolod of Parañaque and Makati City, respectively, were the first members of the gang to fall into police hands in a sting operation at the parking lot of Divine Mercy Church in Marilao, Bulacan, Monday afternoon while negotiating the sale of a stolen L-300 van with CIDG undercover agents.

Following their arrest, Hanz, of Agno Street, Quezon City, was nabbed at Violeta Subdivision, Guiguinto, Bulacan, after his very own text message sent to Pablo’s cellular telephone, unmasked him as the financier of the group.

Using the suspects’ cellular telephones in sending decoy messages to remaining members of the car theft gang, police easily tracked down Chavez and Pangilinan at a gas station in Victoria, Tarlac, while waiting inside a stolen Toyota car for their three cohorts, not knowing that they had already been arrested by CIDG operatives.

Interrogation of the suspects led agents of the CIDG and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) to Baguio City the other day where Jalimao and Salvacion were subsequently arrested at their safehouse along Honeymoon street, Traconville Subdivision.

The suspects are now detained at the CIDG’s detention cell in Camp Crame.

Senior Superintendent Jesus Versoza, chief of the CIDG’s Office for Businessmen’s Concerns, said recovery operations are underway to retrieve a number of stolen cars which have been already sold by the suspects to unsuspecting buyers, including a radio announcer and his children.

Aside from this, Verzosa disclosed that efforts are also being undertaken to unmask the involvement of the suspects in other criminal activities, such as kidnapping-for-ransom and credit card fraud.