5 Charged in Chop Shop Raid

Five men were charged in Van Nuys Superior Court on Wednesday with operating a $3-million chop shop--one of the largest ever discovered in the San Fernando Valley. Two of the men also were charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

They were arrested Monday morning after detectives from the Consolidated Effort to Combat Auto Theft, or CECAT--a multi-agency unit composed of Los Angeles police, California Highway Patrol and Department of Motor Vehicles investigators--discovered a car-stripping operation at a gated rental house in the 11400 block of Erwin Street.

The suspects were identified as Eber Alonso Gomez, 35, his brother Roosevelt Gomez, 31, their cousin Ulises Gomez, 25, and two friends, Jose Cardenas, 26, and Jose Ramon del Cid, 26. All are illegal immigrants from San Miguel, El Salvador, police said.

The men are being held in Van Nuys Jail, each in lieu of $50,000 bail. If convicted of operating a chop shop, they could receive up to four years in prison. The assault with a deadly weapon charge could lead to an additional eight years.

LAPD Det. Kenneth Belt, a member of the auto theft unit, said that a year ago the suspects eluded authorities, who had tracked them and set up a perimeter, because of a driving rain and poor coordination by police. “We had them pinned down a year ago, but everything went wrong,” he said.

Last month, the detective said, LAPD statistical analysis revealed a cluster of stolen vehicle recoveries in North Hollywood near Erwin Street and Tujunga Avenue. Detectives from the joint auto theft unit staked out the area waiting for thieves to dump a stolen car there.

Knowing that police can locate certain cars equipped with tracking devices, car thieves often “air out” hot vehicles. “They’ll set it out in a residential neighborhood somewhere and see if the police come and get it,” Belt said. If the vehicle is still at the dump spot a couple of days later, they will finish stripping it.

Three weeks ago, undercover officers staking out the area spotted two men dumping an Acura Integra two blocks from the North Hollywood police station. The men then drove away in a Nissan and took a wrong turn into a cul-de-sac. The officers followed the men in an unmarked police car. As the Nissan pulled into a driveway to turn around, pursuing officers blocked them from behind and identified themselves as police.

“But they used their car as a battering ram and made their escape,” said Belt, who identified Eber and Roosevelt Gomez as the men in the Nissan. Both men were charged Wednesday with assault with a deadly weapon in that incident.

Investigators were able to obtain a fingerprint from the abandoned Acura, which led them to the Erwin Street residence. Staking out the house Sunday night, they moved in shortly after midnight and made the arrests.

The ring usually stole 1- to 2-year-old high-end Hondas because their parts are valuable and interchangeable, Belt said. They stole about three cars a week, stripping only one at a time.

Police estimated that the operation took in $3 million annually.

Belt said the men worked at night inside the garage, adding that nothing about the house’s exterior suggested what was going on inside.

“They only had their personal cars out front. Their neighbors didn’t have a clue,” Belt said, adding that the men cleaned up after each job and left no stolen parts in the area.

Items found inside the stolen cars were sold in a perennial garage sale in front of the house, Belt said. “They sold golf clubs, laptop computers, in-line skates--you name it,” he said. “They were entrepreneurs--just not legal” ones.