New leader takes over car theft group

With suspected car theft gang leaders Raymond and Roger Domingo now detained at the Quezon City Jail Annex in Bicutan, Taguig City, their youngest brother Ryan now looms as the head of group, a police official said.

Senior Supt. Ferdinand Villanueva, chief of the Quezon City Police District anticarnap unit (Dacu) made the disclosure following the arrest of three suspected members of the group and the recovery of two  stolen sports utility vehicles in a raid  on their safe house in Bulacan province the other day.

Villanueva named the arrested suspects as Antonio Garcia, 40; Romnick Estrella, 22; and Arnel Torres, 47, all residents of Calumpit, Bulacan.

The suspects were traced inside a compound located in Purok II, Barangay Kaniogan-1 owned by one Carol Mutuc, in  joint operations conducted by Dacu, the Highway Patrol Group  and the Calumpit Municipal Police.

Torres told investigators that the car robbery group is now headed by Ryan,  under the direction of his jailed brothers Raymond and Roger.

The suspect also named Rolando Talban, the alleged gunman of the group, as Ryan’s assistant.

During the police operations, agents also  recovered  a stolen Ford Everest (PMQ-645) and a Mitsubishi L-300 van (UKG-770) and hundreds of dismantled parts of suspected stolen vehicles.

Charges filed

Villanueva said car robbery and illegal dismantling of vehicles charges had been filed on Wednesday against Garcia, Estrella and Torres.

Included in the charge sheet were Ryan, Talban and Mutuc.

SPO1 Pio Torrecampo,  of the QCPD anticarnap unit, said that based on their investigation, Garcia has a pending car robbery case in a Quezon City court and is temporarily out on bail.

He added that they stumbled into the group’s safe house and storage area while looking for another  stolen Ford Everest (XRT-836) owned by a Ronnie Navarrete.

The SUV was considered stolen when a certain Ryan Bautista or Jhun Henares who rented the van on Oct. 31 failed to return the vehicle, Torrecampo said.

The suspects were  caught trying to attach a different plate number (KDW 667) to the stolen Ford Everest with  the original plate (PMQ 645).

Another Ford Explorer owned by one Reylex Lumelay, a car jack victim, was also found in the compound.

Torrecampo also found inside the  L-300 van an Explorer engine block, found to be registered to a Cenen Ceniza.

Based on the statement of one of the arrested suspects, Ryan had  paid P110,000 to alter the engine chassis of the Explorer, Torrecampo added.