Bolt Cutter Gang busted

Three members of the Bolt Cutter Gang, believed behind the rash of robberies and break-ins on banks and private establishments in eastern Metro Manila and Rizal, were arrested yesterday in the act of robbing a store in Marikina City.

Suspects, Benjie Santosan, 37; Fortunato Delima, 54, and Reynaldo de los Reyes, 34, all natives of Mansalay, Mindoro Oriental and residents of Las Piñas City, yielded a white Mitsubishi L-300 van, a bolt cutter, a pick mattock, two broken padlocks, a kitchen knife, a steel bar, an improvised hack screw and an acetylene tank.

Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., Marikina City police chief, said the three suspects were collared in the act of destroying the padlocks of the steel roll door of the Light Speed Trading, a dealer of expensive shoe sewing machine, located on J.P. Rizal street in Barangay Sto. Niño at 4:30 a.m.

"They have been positively identified as the men behind the series of robberies and break-ins at banks and commercial establishments," said Chief Superintendent Oscar Valenzuela, director of the Eastern Police District.

Rojas said a security guard of a nearby establishment called Police Community Precinct 4 upon spotting the suspects.

The Marikina police chief dispatched mobile car 160 manned by PO1s Amelito Augustos and Nelson Cruz. They caught the three suspects in the act of destroying the padlocks of the store. The suspects gave up peacefully.

"This only proves that the police visibility measures by the national police is effective in crime prevention," said Valenzuela, as he briefed precinct commanders of the Marikina City police of the new operational guidelines released by Metro police chief Director Avelino Razon Jr.

SPO4 Celso Cruz, head of the Station Investigation Division (SID), said the suspects owned up the heist at the Marikina Valley Rural Bank last Aug. 9; Real Thrift Bank in Cainta, Rizal last Sept. 13; and Minds and Play Internet Shop; Computer Shop in Barangay Parang; a poultry supply store in Bacoor, Cavite; a Manpower shop in San Mateo, Rizal; a Kodak developing store and the Derma House in SSS Village and an auto supply shop also in Cainta.