Major dent in carjacking ring… Ex-cop, women among several arrested

Feb 11, 2018 News

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A former policeman, a husband and wife duo and four women, have been taken into custody following the discovery of several suspected stolen vehicles and parts at North Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara and Monument Hill, Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
It is believed that the vehicles might have been hijacked and stripped of their parts which are being sold.
And with vehicles being hijacked almost daily countrywide, police ranks from the Major Crimes Investigation Unit swooped down on the North Vryheid’s Lust premises occupied by a 29-year-old taxi driver and his 25-year-old wife. They found several car mirrors—with engraved licence plate numbers—doors, lights, wipers and other vehicle parts for Toyota Allion, Spacio and Premio motor cars.
As a result, the couple was taken into custody after the husband provided police with conflicting stories as to why the suspected stolen vehicle parts were piled up at his residence.
When he was first questioned by ranks, the man claimed that apart from being a taxi driver, he is employed with an auto spares company for which he was storing the items.  However, after it was put to the taxi driver by cops that the auto spares company does not buy or sell nor import used vehicle parts, he changed his story.
This time, he claimed that he was not employed with the auto sales company and that he just storing the parts for the company. Kaieteur News understands that police are in the process of contacting the auto spares company.
Meanwhile, an ex policeman and four women were detained after police ranks in ‘A’ Division went to a property at Monument Hill, Kuru Kururu and conducted a search during which a quantity of vehicle parts and several vehicles suspected to be stolen or unlawfully obtained were found.
The items have been lodged at the Timehri Police Station.
In one of several photographs released by the police, a number of vehicle seats, a trunk door, steering wheel and other parts were scattered under a shed. The other photos depict a Toyota Runx bearing number plate PPP 5957, a grey Nissan Bluebird with license plate PSS 4593, all of which, were seized by police ranks during the raid at Kuru Kururu.
The discovery of the stolen vehicles and parts would come at a time when the police, only last month, seized four cars from a taxi service base at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara. According to information received, police ranks stumbled upon the taxi base on January 21 when they went to the location to look for a crashed vehicle which was taken to the mechanic shop operated by Ganesh James, who is currently on $100,000 bail for hijacking a car.

Kaieteur News was informed that it was there that they found four vehicles, including two crashed cars in which the chassis numbers had been tampered with. The two crashed cars along with a Toyota Fielder Wagon and a Toyota Allion were seized.
James was arrested late last year after he allegedly conspired with others to hijack a car valued $2.1M from Ramesh Ramoutar on December 14, 2017 at Better Hope, East Coast Demerara.
James was subsequently charged and placed before the courts.
Reports are that James tampered with the stolen vehicle’s chassis number. He reportedly put the chassis number for his crashed car on the stolen car. The crashed vehicle that James left at the mechanic shop was allegedly being used as parts for other stolen cars. It was during interrogation that James led ranks to Herstelling where they discovered two other crashed cars, and on both vehicles the chassis numbers had been tampered with. At the base also, ranks found the two vehicles believed to be stolen cars.
Recently, there have been a number of carjacking with Toyota Allion and Premio motor cars being the most targeted.
For last year, 25 vehicles were hijacked, including three Carina 212 and a Toyota Spacio car.
In most of these cases, the drivers were held at gunpoint.
In light of this, Crime Chief Paul Williams had said that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) will be partnering with the Guyana Revenue Authority and Insurance companies to tackle the culprits behind the crime.
Kaieteur News was informed that investigators will be able to determine how many crashed vehicles were sold as “scraps” and where they were sold since there have been reports that stolen cars are stripped and sold as spare parts.
GRA will provide the police with information pertaining to the ownership of vehicles and the dates they were imported. Additionally, the Crime Chief said that there are a number of unauthorized workshops throughout the country.  The operators of these places will have to provide the cops with details regarding the origin of spare parts.
“We are going to be visiting these places and they have to tell us where they get their parts from,” the Crime Chief said.
Williams explained that there are instances where persons report that their vehicles had been stolen, but when checks were made; it was found that the vehicles were actually repossessed by the auto dealers.
“We are asking persons, when they come to report that their vehicle was hijacked, to tell us if they have any money outstanding for any auto dealers, because we would have had cases where a person parks and goes into a store. When he comes out, the vehicle is gone but it really was the company using its duplicate key to repossess the vehicle,” Williams said.
Asked whether he has received information that there are auto companies that purchase these stolen cars, the Crime Chief said that he has not received such report. Moreover, he indicated that ranks will be examining taxi bases to see if any stolen vehicles are there.

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