The Lagos State Police Command has smashed a notorious vehicle vandalism syndicate said to have been terrorising motorists across the state, stripping valuable parts from vehicles parked along roadsides and broken-down cars.

Two suspected members of the gang identified as Uba Chigozie (46) and Onyeka Emordi (37) have been arrested by operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Command, under the supervision of CSP Sunday Cirman.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Adebisi, confirmed the arrest of the suspects on Friday.

Adebisi said operatives were currently on the trail of other members of the syndicate, assuring residents that the command would continue its efforts to dismantle criminal networks operating in the state.

She warned other criminals to turn a new leaf or be prepared to face the full weight of the law, warning that the Command, under the leadership of Commissioner of Police Tijani Fatai, would leave no stone unturned in its determination to rid Lagos of criminal elements.

The suspects allegedly targeted valuable components including brain boxes, press-button machines, pigeon holes and air-conditioning vents, which they remove within minutes and sell through contacts in the spare-parts market.

According to the police, the gang could dismember parts of a vehicle within ten minutes, and that they were making as much as N100, 000 from a single operation.

The gang members, who reportedly had links in the popular Ladipo Auto Spare Parts Market in Lagos, were said to live in different parts of the state but converge at night to move to selected locations where they carry out operations.

One of the suspects, Chigozie, a former spare-parts dealer at Papa Ajao Spare Parts Market, was arrested at a hotel in the Ijesha area where he had reportedly been lodging for about four months.

He confessed to participating in vehicle vandalism for about 10 years, and blamed his involvement on financial hardship following the demolition of his shop by the government.

He said he later went to Ladipo Market to engage in “Baranda”, a practice of connecting customers with spare-parts dealers, where he met a man identified as Oba, who allegedly introduced him to the cerime.

He told investigators that the gang sold vandalised brain boxes for about N40,000 and press-button machines for N10,000, adding that his share, sometimes, was N100,000.