Suspected professional swindler nabbed at NAIA

Airport police filed estafa charges yesterday against an alleged swindler operating at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Henry Gutierrez, 39, of Phase 8, North Fairview, Quezon City, was likewise nabbed for carrying a knife in the airport in violation of the election ban on firearms and other deadly weapons.

Police Intelligence and Investigation Division (PIID) chief, Captain Alden Gay, said the suspect has been on the Airport Police Department’s wanted persons’ list for quite a time now as a professional swindler who also goes by the name Alex Monteclaro.

Gutierrez had been previously arrested for the similar swindling activities which involve fooling unsuspecting victims into believing that he is a seaman and he has unclaimed baggage at the NAIA, Gay told The STAR.

The suspect, after spending time in jail, went back to his old ways and victimized Alan Galve, 29, of Dagat-Dagatan, Caloocan City over the weekend.

In a two-page complaint filed before the Pasay City prosecutor’s office, Gutierrez, on Saturday, approached his victim while the same was buying a Negros Navigation ticket to Cagayan de Oro at the Grand Central Mall in Caloocan City.

The suspect befriended Galve, said that he was from the same province as the victim, told him that he is a seaman who recently came home, and that he needed help to claim some baggage at the airport.

Gay said Gutierrez eventually managed to convince his victim to accompany him to the airport in exchange for a free ticket to Cagayan de Oro.

Upon reaching the NAIA, the suspect left the victim inside a taxicab they rented and came back borrowing P5,000 because he allegedly had no loose change.

Unknown to Gutierrez, APD elements led by Corporals Roderick Mejia and Victor Mallari who were manning a checkpoint spotted him as a wanted person who has been the subject of several estafa complaints.

Gay said his men followed Gutierrez and collared him just as he was about to board a taxi and disappear with the victim’s money and when frisked, the suspect yielded an 11-inch fan knife concealed in his socks.

Galve, as well as the driver of the taxi they rented, identified as Felipe Esguerra, 39, have filed criminal charges against Gutierrez.

Gay, in a report to APD chief Superintendent Francisco Dino, said Gutierrez was last arrested in June 2005 and released in December 2006.

"On Jan. 8, 2007, the suspect again swindled an innocent victim, prompting this office to issue an alarm sheet to all APD sections and requested to effect arrest upon sight," he said.

However, the suspect managed to slip through checkpoints and managed to eventually victimize four more persons in separate occasions.

Gay said Gutierrez operates by frequenting ticketing offices in Metro Manila to search for victims who will believe his story and help him pick up something at the NAIA.

He advised all those who may have been victimized by the suspect to come forward and file charges to strengthen their case against him.