Vehicle theft boss shot dead in Cipanas
Vehicle theft boss shot dead in Cipanas
JAKARTA (JP): City police have shot dead one of the most wanted repeat offenders who is also a ganglord of an extensive vehicle theft syndicate, in a night raid in Cipanas, about 90 kilometers south of here.
The suspect, Maman Haryanto, better known as Hery, 31, was shot at least four times during the raid in front of a restaurant at the West Java mountain tourist resort on Wednesday,
Lt. Col. Bambang Widaryatmo, head of the general crimes bureau of the greater Jakarta crime investigation directorate, told reporters here yesterday that the criminal had tried to attack the detectives, who then shot him twice in the abdomen and twice in the leg.
"He's the number one ganglord in the vehicle theft syndicates in this city," said Bambang.
Hery, believed to have successfully stolen and sold around 100 cars, including luxury sedans, was also wanted by the city police detectives for his alleged role in the shooting at a five-star hotel and a bank tower in Central Jakarta last year.
Based on the city police record, Hery was an ex-serviceman.
"We had been searching for this man since 1987," said city police spokesman Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna, who was a detective at that time.
"However, we're always in the dark about his whereabouts as none of his people speak when arrested," Iman said.
According to Bambang, Hery had been chased by city police detectives for several months. Police detected his whereabouts only in the past few days.
Police hired people to pretend to be car buyers. During the plotted meeting with the "buyers", Hery came to the restaurant in Cipanas in a stolen Toyota Kijang van, Bambang said.
At around 5:45 p.m., Hery went out of the restaurant to show his buyers the car parked in front of the place without knowing that there were about 20 under-cover police detectives on hand, said Bambang.
"He resisted our order to surrender even though we fired two warning shots," said officer Bambang.
Forensic scientist at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Mun'im Idris, told The Jakarta Post last night that the corpse of the suspected ganglord had yet to be examined.
Officer Bambang said that Hery, a resident of Kampung Cipaku at Dampit in the West Java capital of Bandung, had set up dozens of well-organized vehicle theft rings.
In most of their operations, the syndicates' members, always operating with vehicles, were armed with sharp weapons.
Along with the finding of Hery, police also confiscated a black Masterpiece E 220 Mercedes Benz sedan and a Toyota Kijang Super van from the suspect. (bsr)