EDITORIAL - Lucrative trade

Like kidnapping for ransom and drug trafficking, carjacking has become so lucrative that people are prepared to kill for it. Law enforcers are not sleeping on the job, but their campaign can use more effort. They did arrest the brothers Raymond and Roger Dominguez, dubbed as the carjack kings, and thought it would put an end to one of the largest carjacking operations. Police, however, are pursuing reports that a younger sibling of the Dominguez brothers is now running the gang.

Ryan Dominguez was identified by a suspected carjacker who was arrested together with two other men last week in a raid in Calumpit, Bulacan. Ryan is at large, but his two brothers are in jail not just for carjacking but also for the brutal murder of car dealer Venson Evangelista. If Ryan is caught or “neutralized” like several other carjacking suspects in the past, will the syndicate simply get another leader, possibly from the same family again?

If the story about Ryan proves accurate, it indicates that while Raymond and Roger Dominguez have been arrested, the Philippine National Police has failed to dismantle the elaborate network that feeds such operations. Stolen vehicles must be hidden, altered, given new registration papers, and then passed on to buyers, who may or may not know that they are buying stolen items.

For this type of operation, the carjackers need guns as well as a secluded garage or warehouse for vehicle storage and alteration. The biggest operators usually enjoy the cooperation of crooks in the agencies that are supposed to be on the lookout for carjacking rings, notably the PNP Highway Patrol Group and the Land Transportation Office.

The emergence of Ryan Dominguez as the alleged new leader of the family business shows that it’s not enough to arrest the key members of an organized crime ring. Whether it’s carjacking, kidnapping, drug trafficking or gunrunning, the entire network must be dismantled. The ringleaders’ cohorts, especially those who are supposed to be looking out for public interest, should be caught and punished.