Two Koreans and a Filipino nurse were arrested by police yesterday as suspects in a car theft ring that targets Hyundai Starex vans in Metro Cebu.
At least nine stolen vehicles were recovered.
Among the vans recovered was one owned by basketball legend Ramon Fernandez.
Chief Supt. Marcelo Garbo, Central Visayas police chief, said police are still looking for two other Koreans allegedly involved in the car theft ring.
“Marami ito sila (they are many),” Garbo told reporters.
The arrested Koreans were identified as 42-year-old Kim Jae Young who used the aliases Leo Lim and Andy and 36-year-old Seo Yong Hong, alias Louis. They were arrested in a hotel last Tuesday evening.
Arrested a day before was 27-year-old Raphael Montilla alias Raprap, a nurse who lives in Vista Grande, barangay Bulacao, Talisay City.
Montilla was arrested by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for possession of ampules of Nubain in 2007.
Seized from the Koreans’ hotel room were car manuals, blank keys and car door lock components as well as tools, syringes and ampules of Nubain.
Chief Insp. George Ylanan, chief of the Regional Operation Group (RSOG), said they launched the operation after receiving a tip that Montilla was in possession of two “hot” Starex vans.
Ylanan’s team arrested Montilla at home. Police said he had sold one of the Starex vans for P40,000.
During interrogation, Montilla disclosed the identities of the Koreans who allegedly told him to produce the vehicles and look for prospective buyers.
The two Koreans disclosed the location of the other vans in barangays Cabancalan and Casuntingan in Mandaue City.
Police found five vans abandoned on a road in Mandaue City. Some of the vehicles were already cannibalized, Ylanan said.
He said the suspects tagged a certain Mr. Chui of Banilad and a certain Mr. Lim of barangay Mactan in Lapu-Lapu City as the syndicate’s masterminds.
“They would leave the vehicle at the roadside and then the people of Chui and Lim would pick it and deliver it to Mandaue City,” Ylanan said.
Suspect Seo denied being part of the syndicate.
“Some of my friends just asked me to help them find a buyer,” he told Cebu Daily News.
Seo said he used to be an agent of Casino Filipino in Mactan and is presently unemployed.
He said he arrived in Cebu six years ago and learned a few Cebuano words. Seo said he stayed in the country for two years and met Kim last January.
Kim however, admitted that he took part in stealing four Starex vans and specialized in securing car accessories for Korean-made vehicles.
Basketball legend Fernandez went to the police headquarters to claim his van. The retired cager said his vehicle was stolen in the morning of Jan. 19 based on footage from a closed circuit TV camera of their neighbor in Villa Aurora Village in Kasambagan in Cebu City.
Engr. Francisco Perater Jr., a retired government employee, said his van was stolen while parked in front of his home in barangay Parian, Cebu City. He said the van was his daughter’s gift to him when he retired.
Another claimant, 37-year-old Edwin Inoclan, was shocked to see his pink Starex van with no doors and glass windows.
Police said Inoclain’s van was recovered outside Warehouse 11 in barangay Cabancalan, Mandaue City. Inocian bought the second hand Starex van last November for P220,000. With Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos and Ador Vincent Mayol