Officers of the St. Catherine North Police Division inspect scrapped motor vehicles during a police operation in the Kingland community near Kitson Town, St. Catherine, yesterday. The police found motor vehicles and their scrapped parts valued at approximately $10 million at the site. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

SPANISH TOWN, St. Catherine:

The Spanish Town police have recovered approximately $10 million in stolen motor vehicle parts and scrapped motor vehicles during an operation in the Kingland area near Kitson Town, St. Catherine.

According to Deputy Superinten-dent of Police (DSP) Anthony Castell, a police team, acting on intelligence, went to the area where more than 10 scrapped Toyota Corollas, Honda CRVs, Toyota Town Ace and Hiace buses were found cut into pieces. The police said the men who were present ran on seeing the lawmen.

"The special squad got information and when we got there, a group of men ran into nearby bushes. The bushes were searched, but they (the men) made good their escape. However, the police will be continuing their drive against criminality, be it guns, murders or stolen cars," remarked DSP Castell.

In their bid for a quick getaway, the men left behind a wheelbarrow containing gas cylinders, a welding torch, chisels, hammers and other implements used to disassemble motor vehicles.

Well-organised set-up

The area revealed awell-organised set-up, as lush vegetation was used to hide the vehicles several metres from the public thoroughfare. So deeply covered was the area that several wreckers could not traverse the terrain to retrieve the stolen vehicles.

One Corolla, which had not yet been scrapped, was in fact reported stolen in Kingston on Thursday.

This is the third major find of this nature by the police in the last six months

The find has brought the monetary value of recovered vehicles over that time period to some $50 million.

In December, the St. Catherine police took a man and a woman into custody in connection with a car-stealing ring after locating some 50 Toyota motor cars in bushes in the parish.

In that incident, about 40 of the vehicles, cut into various pieces, were believed to be 2003 and 2004 Toyota Corolla models.