2 nabbed in Malabon chop shop

MANILA, Philippines - Police arrested two suspected members of a car theft group at a car repair shop in Malabon City Friday and seized millions of pesos worth of car parts and several stolen vehicles that were being dismantled.

Senior Superintendent Roberto Villanueva, Malabon City police chief, identified the suspects as car parts trader Reymil Hernandez, 35, and driver-mechanic Ruel Oberos, 29.

At least two stolen vehicles – a Mitsubishi L300 (WCA-257), registered to a certain Eduardo Estares and a gold Isuzu Sportivo (ZNU-385) owned by Wilson Uy of Sampaloc, Manila – were recovered from the car repair shop on A. Bonifacio street.

“If we are going to base the number of vehicles that could have been dismembered inside the shop on different exhausts that we recovered, they were about 25, with millions worth of car parts stocked up to the second floor of the shop’s two-story building,” Villanueva told The STAR.

He said earlier that day, the police arrested Gener Guevarra, another suspected car thief, while he was reportedly transporting undocumented car engines.

“Guevarra’s arrest led to the raid of the shop,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva said they also recovered an engine for a Toyota Prado vehicle and a “cannibalized” Honda Civic and several license plates.

A certain Anne Laroya reportedly leased the shop from Glenn San Pedro for P28,000 a month since 2007 but Laroya’s operation in the area is “intermittent,” Villanueva said.

According to Villanueva, Laroya also has a car repair shop in Subic that converts right-hand drive vehicles to left-hand drives and sells them to local buyers.

Villanueva said that the suspects could be linked to a big-time car theft syndicate that operates not only in Malabon but also in nearby provinces.