2 rob gang members fall

Police arrested two members of a robbery gang, including its alleged leader, during follow-up operations Friday in Caloocan City. Antonio Nacua, 49, of Phase 10-A, Package 1, Lot 14, Bagong Silang, Caloocan City, brother-in-law of victim Nestor Ramirez, 52, was first to fall followed by his henchman and neighbor Angelito Mandoza, 37.

Chief Inspector Sotero Ramos Jr., Northern Police District intelligence unit chief, said that Nacua went to his brother-in-law’s house on Block 34, Lot 8, Phase 3 F-1 in Dagat-Dagatan, Caloocan, at around 9 a.m. Thursday purportedly to use Ramirez telephone to call a friend abroad.

Ramirez, without hesitation, allowed Nacua to use the phone and left him alone inside his house and went on attending to other matters.

Unknown to Ramirez, his brother-in-law, a suspected leader of a robbery gang, had already been casing the victim’s house in his previous visits.

Nacua opened the backdoor of Ramirez’s residence to let his two cohorts, Mendoza and another one identified only as Ramil, enter the dwelling.

While Nacua was pretending to talk to someone over the phone, Mendoza and Ramil went directly to the master’s bedroom and ransacked it for cash and valuables. At around 9:30 a.m., after Nacua left, Ramirez noticed that his bedroom was in disarray. He told police that the suspects divested him of P150,000 in cash, assorted jewelry amounting to some P40,000, two cellular phones and other valuables. Ramos’ men arrested the suspects in their respective residences and recovered from them the victim’s jewelry and several pawnshop receipts.

Missing was Ramil, who is now the subject of a police manhunt and the P150,000 in cash which according to Nacua, he was not aware of.

In another development, NPD operatives also arrested Friday Ronald dela Cruz, 35, of 6368 Libis Nadurata street, Caloocan City, an alleged drug pusher and Norberto Natividad, 18, Dela Cruz’s neighbor in a buy-bust operation.

NPD director Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr., tasked the District Police Intelligence Unit to run after Dela Cruz, after Bgy. Chairman Roel Nadurata of Bgy. 18, Zone 2, District 2, charged the suspect as responsible for the proliferation of illegal drugs in their barangay. Caloocan City Fiscal Manuel Guiyab recommended a P200,000 bail for Natividad for the charge of illegal drug use and no bail for Dela Cruz for drug pushing. – Pete Laude