IT all started on last Saturday when a car theft victim recognised his car’s sports rim, which resulted in the detaining of a man allegedly driving the victim’s Proton Wira at Taman Sungai Besi Indah.

The arrest then lead to two other major arrests which eventually busted a notorious car theft syndicate that is active in Klang Valley and Johor.

Selangor CID chief, SAC Mohd Adnan Abdullah said the bust down of a the syndicate was made after police received a report from a 57-year-old mechanic who stated that his Proton Wira that was parked near his house went missing.

“We received the report at 1.17 pm and immediately we informed our patrol team to monitor on it and approximately around 2.30 pm, we being informed that police did arrest a man in a Proton Wira near the Taman Sungai Besi Indah area,” said Mohd Adnan.

Police found that the car was bearing the fake registration number.

The 30-year-old man from Tawau Sabah was then detained and police later call the owner of the car and the owner confirmed it that the car belongs to him as he recognised the sports rim that was installed on the car.

Initial investigation later brought police to Taman Seri Bahagia, Cheras at 6pm where police apprehended a 36-year-old car workshop owner.

“From police record, he had three previous criminal records involving car theft and used to be detained for involvement in a biggest car theft syndicate haul in Batu Berendam, Malacca in 2011,” he said.

Police later managed to trace a couple who is believed to be the accomplice of the man driving a stolen Proton Iswara near the area.

The husband and wife aged 28 and 21 were detained in a Proton Iswara using a fake registration number and check from police record it was reported missing at Batu 9, Cheras last year.

After an investigation conducted on four of the syndicate members, police then raided a car workshop at Kawasan Perindustrian Nilai 7 in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan on Monday and found 19 stolen cars that have been cannabalised it’s components, engines and spareparts.

The cars were reported stolen in areas such as Kajang, Ampang, Johor and Cheras since last year and it were estimated half a million.

The cars then brought to the workshop to be dismantled.

Check by police also found that the syndicate have been involved since last year and have been targeting national cars like Proton Wira, Proton Waja and Proton Iswara for its spareparts availability.

The suspects have been remanded until Thursday.

With the arrest of the suspects, police believed that they have solved 19 car theft cases since 2011.