OAKLAND — On a recent Friday, a task force of local police officers converged on the 5200 block of International Boulevard, searching through piles of car parts, vehicles and trailers, seizing guns, blank money orders and two allegedly stolen motorcycles, according to court records.
After the East Oakland raid, prosecutors charged 55-year-old Doran Lee Williams with being a felon in possession of a firearm, possessing stolen vehicles and having 100 blank stolen money orders, all part of a six-count felony complaint, court records show. In court filings, Oakland police said that it appeared to them Williams was using his unregistered auto repair business as a front for a stolen vehicle chop shop. He was released from jail four days after the raid and remains free while the case is pending, court records show.
Like many suspected chop shops, the allegedly illegal business was hiding in plain sight. Police say it continued to operate even after complaints from residents and city of Oakland workers and warnings from authorities. The police raid was just one of numerous recent investigations targeting the sprawling and sophisticated illegal industries propping up a stolen car economy in California that was worth an estimated $1.56 billion last year, according to the California Highway Patrol…