Pampanga raid yields ‘chop-chop’ car parts

A combined team of the Pampanga police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) raided the safehouse of a big-time hijacking and gun-for-hire syndicate in San Simon, Pampanga last Friday, recovering two stolen cargo trucks and a huge volume of "chop-chop" vehicle parts.

Director Jesus Verzosa, CIDG chief, said operatives of the CIDG-Central Luzon, together with the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and anti-car theft teams of the regional police and the San Simon police, swooped down on the sprawling Selecta compound along Quezon Road in Barangay San Isidro where the notorious "Batu syndicate" had kept stolen vehicles.

Senior Superintendent Zoila Lachica, CIDG-Central Luzon chief, said the raid, covered by a search warrant issued by Angeles City Regional Trial Court Judge Omar Viola, resulted in the recovery of two cargo trucks loaded with scrap metals worth about P240,000 which were hijacked along the Cabanatuan City-San Isidro highway the previous day.

Brothers Chito and Jesus Batu, leaders of the hijacking syndicate, eluded arrest by escaping through the back of the compound.

The manager of the compound, identified as Rodrigo Lozano, was not around during the raid, which was witnessed by barangay officials.

Aside from the two Isuzu Elf cargo trucks with license plates WTR-807 and NTY-832, the CIDG-led raiding team also seized a gray Toyota Corolla with license plate PLJ-135, a dismantled Suzuki 120cc motorcycle, 10 Mitsubishi Strada tires, a pair of car rims, six tires with rims, and assorted vehicle parts such as tail lights, fenders, mufflers, car doors, windshields, bumpers, and step boards.

The car parts and accessories and two cargo trucks recovered are now under the custody of the Pampanga police.

Meanwhile, the suspected leader of another big-time crime syndicate in Central Luzon and two of his henchmen were killed in two separate police encounters in Nueva Ecija yesterday morning.

Verzosa said the killings of syndicate leader Alfredo Jaoquin and his cohorts Julius Castro and Norvin Capulong were the results of the CIDG’s ongoing anti-crime campaign dubbed Oplan Salikop.

Joaquin, whose gang was behind robberies, car thefts and cattle rustling in Nueva Ecija, was killed when he traded shots with CIDG agents who had pursued him while he was transporting carabao meat before dawn yesterday in Cabanatuan City.

Found in Joaquin’s possession was a caliber .38 Armscor revolver.

Policemen later caught up with Castro and Capulong heading toward Barangay San Jose Norte on board a red motorcycle.

But instead of giving up, they drove toward the Bato-Bato River while firing at the lawmen, Lachica said.

Police records showed that Joaquin, a former member of the disbanded Pilo syndicate, had been jailed for three years for cattle rustling, while Castro was arrested and subsequently released for a car theft case last year.