Car theft gang falls; vehicles recovered in Bulacan raid
Three stolen vehicles were recovered in a raid on a safehouse of a car robbery group in Baliwag, Bulacan province, on Tuesday. The raid led to the arrest of four of its members, including their leader.
In a press briefing Wednesday at Camp Karingal, Chief Superintendent Mario de la Vega, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director, said the group was led by Joemel Salvatierra who had been linked to at least seven car robbery incidents in the city since January.
The operation was conducted by agents from the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) and the QCPD’s District Anti-Carnapping Unit (DACU) led by Supt. Ferdinand Villanueva.
De la Vega commended Villanueva and his men for the arrest of what he described as the emerging leader of a notorious car robbery syndicate. Salvatierra, 30, formed his new group after he had a falling out with Marc Lester, the 17-year-old leader of another car theft gang, he added.
The other arrested suspects were Hermogenes Vergara, 54; Ryan Cruz, 23; Roy Agto, 33; and Edgardo Caguiat, 28. Another suspect, Christopher Ducut, was able to escape, Villanueva said.
The anticarnap head said the location of the group’s hideout in Barangay (village) Sabang was traced after days of surveillance operations.
Ducut, on the other hand, had been identified by one of his victims from police photo files as one of the armed men who forcibly took from him his sports utility vehicle, a Hyundai Tucson.
Recovered from the garage of the safehouse were a Honda CRV with plate number ZTC-829, a Mitsubishi L-300 PIV-586 and a Mitsubishi Montero PDQ 518. Also found inside the group’s hideout were five hand guns of various calibers, more than a hundred keys of various vehicles, bonnets, license plates and tampered car chassis.
