Korean car shop owner, tourists linked to carnap ring

Three more Koreans were arrested yesterday in connection with a car theft ring operating in Metro Cebu that targets Hyundai Starex vans.

One of them, a car dealer, has a warehouse in Mandaue City where cars from Korea used to be stationed.

Police made the arrest ten hours after the three Koreans were seen quickly getting off a stolen car and scampering in different directions past 6 a.m. on Wednesday when Mandaue police approached them in Greenhills in front of Villa Therese Subdivision, barangay Casuntingan, Mandaue City.

This brings to five the number of male Koreans taken into custody this week as police recovered nine Starex vans abandoned in Mandaue City.

The earlier arrest of two other Koreans followed revelations from an arrested Cebuano nurse, 27-year-old Raphael Montilla, whom police said sold one of the vans for P40,000.

Kim Kyung Hwan, 33; Wonseok Lee, 32; and Jang Hyun Lee, 34 were arrested yesterday almost 10 hours after they were spotted by the police abandoning a stolen vehicle with plate number JEH 875.

Kim owns the shop Suwon Jonghap and resides in Green Eldorado Subdivision in Mandaue.

Kim denied any role in carnapping.

He forcefully replied “no”, when he was asked if he was part of a carnapping syndicate in Cebu. He remains detained at the Mandaue police office of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB).

Kim, who has difficulty speaking English, said he’s lived in Cebu for five years while his friends, Wonseok and Jang have only been here for a month for vacation.

“Before we are selling (cars), now just fixing. (I have) no other business. No carnapping,” Kim said. He said the last shipment of vehicles from Korea was in September last year.

Kim said that he has about 20 staff and that he just visits the establishment from time to time.

A warehouse he leased in Castillex Compound, barangay Cabancalan, Mandaue City, was used as a stockroom for vehicles coming from Korea, said his Filipino manager Roldan Alesna.

“I didn’t know they were carnapped vehicles because they’ve always been parked here,” said Alesna. Since December there were no more vehicles in the warehouse, he said.

He said that on February 16 and 17, he went to the warehouse after being told by Kim to start repainting two vehicles.  There were five Starex vehicles parked there when he brought a work crew for painting, he said.

When police visited on Wednesday, there were only car parts of Starex vehicles in the shop.

CHEAP SALE
With the recovery of nine vehicles stolen in Cebu and Mandaue cities, Senior Supt. Petronelli Baldebrin, Mandaue city police chief, said they have “solved” at least four carnapping complaints in Mandaue.

Each stolen van was being sold for only P35,000 or P40,000 in the gray market.

“They would sell it cheap because it’s easier to dispose of the cars this way,” said ” aid Chief Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes.

Only Starex van models from year 2000 to 2008 were the targets.

Bastes said the perpetrators are probably known in the local Korean community.

Police continue to try to identify the mastermind and other cohorts of Kim Jae Young who used the alias Leo Lim and Andy, and 36-year-old Seo Yong Hong alias Louis. The lock of the rear doors of the recovered vehicles were damaged. Police believe the thieves entered the vehicles and drove away with them.

Carnaping charges were filed in the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office against the three additional suspects.

The three Koreans were spotted at 6 a.m. on Wednesday quickly leaving a car that turned out to be stolen. The owner Francisco Garciano Perater had lost the vehicle last February 4 in barangay Pari-an, Cebu City, said Baldebrin.

Soon after, police went to the car shop of Suwon and arrested its owner, Kim.

They later went to his Warehouse Number 11 in the Castilex Compound in barangay Cabancalan.

Shortly after police arrived in the warehouse, a yellow sports car arrived with Wonseok and Jang on board. The two were promptly arrested.

“All police personnel in Mandaue that day were made to conduct follow-up operations regarding the carnapping incidents,” Baldebrin explained.

The three Koreans, upon noticing the presence of the police, quickly disembarked from the car and ran off in different directions.

Police recognized one of them as a Mandaue businessman. When they checked the abandoned vehicle, they found four plate numbers, JEH 875, YEY 193, YEB 925 and YEB 925.

The police team that encountered the car-riding Koreans was headed by Senior Insp. Philip Silva, deputy of City Intellegence Branch (CIB) together with PO3 Cedric Castillano, PO1 Monet Montenegro and PO2 Alexius Tangub.