Shabu syndicate also involved in kidnapping?

Police agents are checking reports that the transnational drug syndicate headed by Jackson Dy was also involved in kidnapping-for-ransom activities in the past.

The police Anti-Illegal Drug – Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOTF) came across this piece of information while digging deeper into the past of Dy, whose real name is Li Lan Yan.

"We received reports the syndicate headed by Dy had been involved in kidnapping before shifting to the illegal drug business," an AID-SOTF official told The STAR.

A Chinese informant told the official that in the ’80s, Dy and his group kidnapped individuals from rich families, some of them relatives of known foreign-based drug pushers, and made it appear that the police or military men were behind the incidents.

Dy and his group would then contact relatives of their captive and "work" for his release in exchange for millions of pesos. Dy, the informant claimed, was the one who received the ransom, which syndicate members would divide among themselves.

The AID-SOTF is set to coordinate with Teresita Ang-See of the Citizens Action Against Crime this week to pin down Dy and his cohorts in the kidnapping cases.

The police official claimed they will ask the help of See to convince some kidnap victims to identify Dy and his companions through the photo gallery of arrested shabu lab operators under the custody of the AID-SOTF.

The STAR tried but failed to reach Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, AID-SOTF chief, for comment.

Superintendent Federico Laciste Jr., AID-SOTF project officer, neither confirmed nor denied the kidnapping story.

However, Superintendent Nelson Yabut, one of the AID-SOTF team leaders, said they are taking the report seriously.

"We are still in the process of gathering evidence linking Dy and his group to kidnapping-for-ransom," Yabut said in an interview.

Dy told The STAR he was neither involved in kidnapping nor illegal drugs. He stuck to his story that he was a plain real estate agent.

The suspect said he arrived as a tourist in the country more than 20 years ago and started working as a helper at a grocery store owned by an aunt in Arranque, Manila. The death of her aunt prompted him to seek employment elsewhere until he eventually became a buy-and-sell agent.

However, the Chinese informant claimed Dy and his group decided to branch out into the manufacture of illegal drugs when police tightened the noose against kidnapping-for-ransom syndicates in the ’90s.

"Dy and his group started as couriers of transnational drug syndicates until they decided to put up their own shabu laboratories so they could earn millions," said the Chinese informant.

The informant claimed Dy was a real-estate agent selling shabu on the side, which explains how he was able to amass millions and buy luxurious condos and townhouses.

Dy told Laciste he owned five luxury vehicles but only a Jaguar has been recovered.

Dy’s neighbors on Lancaster street in F.B. Harrison, Pasay City claimed he bought a condo unit there for P5 million before moving in with his family last year.

They told Querol that Dy left for Hong Kong and came back a few months later and bought three more townhouses nearby for P4.5 million each at a week’s interval.