39 stolen cars worth RM6mil recovered from workshop

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Thirty-nine stolen cars worth about RM6mil were recovered and three mechanics were arrested at a workshop in Bukit Tengah here. The men, aged between 37 and 40, were tampering with the vehicles’ chassis numbers when a police team, acting on a tipoff, raided the premises at about 10.30am on Friday.

Sources said a check showed that the RM600,000 Porsche Cayenne was recently reported stolen in Kajang, Selangor, while the rest were stolen from all over the country including Kuala Lumpur.

Among the vehicles seized were a Jaguar, 11 Audis, eight Mercedes Benz, two BMWs, a Mini Cooper and even a lorry. Four car frames belonging to a Mercedes Benz, an Audi, a Volkswagen and a Perodua Alza were also recovered in the workshop.

They said the suspects have been remanded pending investigations.

Police believed they could be members of a vehicle car theft syndicate with nationwide connections. Local police were working with their Bukit Aman counterpart to round up the other members.

It is learnt that the syndicate members had used a jammer to duplicate the signal from the vehicle alarm remote before “hot-wiring” the vehicles and driving off with them.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that the luxury vehicles were to be smuggled overseas using fake documents while the cheaper ones were to be sold locally.

The syndicate, which had been active for quite some time, could be linked to the one busted in Selangor in July last year where seven people were rounded up in Sungai Buloh and Cheras, and eight stolen luxury vehicles worth more than RM1.5mil were recovered.