Camanava car theft gang boss arrested

Northern Police District operatives arrested the alleged leader of a notorious group of car thieves, also wanted by the authorities for robbery, in an operation last Friday in Malabon City.

NPD director Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr. identified the suspect as Ruel Caldona, 30, of Block 39, Lot 17, Phase 3F-1, Salay-Salay Interior, Barangay 12, Caloocan City.

Caldona, a native of Abuyog, Leyte, who was tagged by the police as the leader of the Nognog carnap gang, has at least two standing warrants of arrest — one for car theft issued by Manila Judge Reynaldo Alhambra and another for robbery issued by Caloocan City Judge Jaime Hamoy.

According to Superintendent Sotero Ramos Jr., NPD-District Police Intelligence Unit (DPIU) chief, Caldona uses three aliases — Edwin Miras, Ricky Badion, and Nognog, to confuse police.

He was finally caught by the DPIU operatives at around 4:30 p.m. at his residence after a week-long surveillance.

Ramos said Caldona and his group are also the suspects in the theft of a tricycle of one Julia Ortega of Barangay Longos, Malabon City last July 28.

Ortega’s vehicle, a red Kawasaki HD3 (UL-5247) with sidecar, was stolen while parked unattended in front of the victim’s residence at around 2 a.m.

The modus operandi of the group is to immediately dismantle their stolen vehicles and dispose of them not only to unscrupulous car parts and accessories dealers in the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela) area, but also in the provinces.

Ramos said Caldona has been the subject of the DPIU’s manhunt operation for quite sometime for the group’s involvement in a series of car theft incidents in the northern part of Metro Manila and adjacent areas.

In Manila, police dealt another major blow to organized car theft syndicates with the arrest of two suspects following stakeout operations in Tondo and Malabon.

Western Police District anti-carnapping unit chief Senior Inspector Leopoldo Mangilinan said Carlito Inano, 34, and Joy Velarde, 21, are members of a syndicate responsible for the rise in the number of stolen motorcycles in Manila, especially at the Tutuban shopping mall in Divisoria and the areas around Manila City Hall.

Mangilinan said the stolen motorcycles are either disassembled or shipped directly to Mindanao using fake documents.

"The syndicate has strong connections with some unscrupulous officials of shipping lines, enabling them to ship motorcycle units in other parts of the country even with spurious documents. They are also adept in changing the appearance of stolen motorcycles," he said.

Records at the WPD’s Ancar Unit showed an average of one motorcycle a day is stolen at the Tutuban shopping mall and almost one a day near the Manila City Hall. Police also recovered stolen motorcycles at an average of three units a week.

Mangilinan attributed the high incidence of motorcycle thefts in the two areas to their highly populated location, where motorized vehicles can move in and out without detection.

The syndicate, according to Mangilinan, is headed by a Muslim trader identified as a certain "Danny." Three other members of the group managed to elude arrest during a police operation in Malabon.

Mangilinan said he had deployed plainclothes operatives to theft-prone areas in Manila along with the trained "spotters." – With Nestor Etolle