Huge Muscle Car Chop Shop Busted In California
Read the full story on The Auto Wire
Police in Fresno, California are celebrating after they busted a muscle car chop shop recently, recovering about $3 million in stolen vehicles. Of course, those rides were in pieces, as you can see from the pictures. And we're sure many more had already been chopped by the people running the operation.Still, Fresno Police Department has reason to celebrate, having arrested seven people who collectively are facing 110 felony charges. This wasn't some small scale operation but instead was responsible for at least processing quite a few stolen muscle cars, if not also stealing them.
You can see whole dash assemblies, including steering wheels, all lined up nicely in one of photos police took after making the bust. A number of those steering wheels say SRT and most of the rest have the Dodge logo.
It's the same with trunk lids also recovered, with a few bearing the telltale Hellcat logo. The sheer scope of the chop shop's operation is impressive, in a disgusting sort of way.
According to Fresno Police Department, these guys were concentrating mostly on Mopar performance models: Chargers, Challengers, Durangos, and Trackhawks. But they also went for some Camaros and Infinitis, we guess to pad that tidy profit line.
If your muscle car went missing in the Fresno area, these guys might have been kind enough to chop it up and sell the pieces to people who wanted to save a buck on replacement parts for their ride.
Police are asking for the public's help in tracking down two people they saw were associated with the chop shop: 20 year-old Julian Calderon and 22 year-old Jordan Rios. Calderon is facing several criminal charges, including stolen vehicle, possession of stolen property, conspiracy to commit a crime, and possess, manufacture, or distribute an assault weapon. Rios is wanted for possessing, manufacturing, or distributing an assault weapon.
We hope to see many more busts like this in the future. Sadly, taking down one car theft ring usually just means others are created or existing ones expand their operations.
Images via Fresno Police Department/Facebook
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