4 more cars seized from suspected hitmen

Police have seized four more vehicles from a suspected gun-for-hire gang, four of whose members were arrested last Saturday, an official disclosed yesterday.

"Verification made with the Land Transportation Office (LTO), showed that the addresses of the owners of these vehicles were in the provinces. Only one resides in Quezon City," Caloocan City police Chief Superintendent William Macavinta told The STAR.

Earlier, the police found four handguns and an M-16 rifle in the trunk of a car after the four were arrested.

Last Sunday, four vehicles – a Mitsubishi Adventure van, a Nissan Sentra sedan, a Honda City sedan and a Toyota FX van were found abandoned on a roadside in barangay 4 by the police during a follow-up operation.

"We found out that the license plate number of the Nissan Sentra corresponds with the vehicle used recently in a robbery in Valenzuela City," Macavinta said. Macavinta said their investigation also focused on why the suspects’ vehicles were abandoned.

Macavinta said that the criminal group his men stumbled upon is not only into gun-for-hire but also into robbery, operating mostly in Central Luzon.

Chief Inspector Crisencio Galvez, Caloocan city police intelligence and investigation chief, said that an active military man leads the group, which is financed by a brother of a still unidentified barangay official.

At around 2 p.m., Sunday, the Caloocan City cops swooped down on Bisig ng Nayon street in barangay 4, after one of the four gang members arrested earlier, Rafael Poblete, told the police were their other vehicles could be located.

Poblete was arrested earlier when the blue Ford Lynx that he was driving yielded guns.

Last Saturday night, the Caloocan police were informed of a suspicious vehicle parked near the barangay hall of barangay 4.

When police approached the car, four of its occupants escaped but the driver, Poblete, was arrested. Three others were arrested in a follow-up operation, Galvez said.

Police seized from Poblete’s car an M-16 rifle, two caliber .45 pistols, a Llama .380 pistol, and a caliber .38 revolver. Also taken were several ammunition magazines, bullets, a bag containing sweatshirts, bonnets, packing tape, flashlights, bolt cutters and a police uniform.

"This group engaged in all forms of illegal activities, including stealing imported fighting cocks from big-time cockfighting farms," Galvez said.