Marikina NFA heist suspects identified

The police have identified at least four of 10 heavily armed men who robbed the warehouse of the National Food Authority (NFA) in Marikina City last July 23.

Marikina City police chief Superintendent Sotero Ramos Jr. said the suspects – Teodulfo Canon, Joseph Puno, Armando Dente, and Alvin Flores – were identified through a rogue’s gallery by truck drivers and helpers who were inside the NFA warehouse at the time of the heist.

Ramos said the suspects were members of the Alvin Flores robbery group. “We are now hot on their trail,” he said of the suspects, who are also linked to a series of payroll, call center and bank client robberies in eastern Metro Manila, Cainta, Rizal and in Southern Tagalog.

Reports showed that three of the suspects entered the NFA compound located along Ladislao Diwa St., in Barangay Uno after a delivery truck was allowed in by a security guard at about 10:27 p.m. last July 23.

Once inside, the three suspects disarmed the three security guards of their service firearms, grabbed the gate keys from one of them and allowed in a grey Toyota Corolla (SFV-907) and a van.

The robbers divested the employees of their cellular phones and wallets and asked several of them to carry the office vault – which contained P52,000 – and load it into one of the vehicles.

The robbers then herded the employees into a warehouse and locked it from the outside.

At the height of the robbery, Ramos said a local police mobile car passed by the area but a “security guard” gave a thumbs-up sign to show that all is well inside the compound. It was later learned that one of the robbers wore the uniform of a security guard and acted as a “lookout.” – Non Alquitran