Padilla gang hooked on drugs, e-games

MANILA, Philippines - Cohorts of slain carjack gang leader Ivan Padilla received only P5,000 for every vehicle stolen as a big chunk of their loot was spent on illegal drugs and online casinos, police said yesterday.

Superintendent Maristelo Manalo, head of the anti-car theft unit of the National Capital Regional Police Office, told The STAR that gang members Dale Alimagno, 22, and Glenn del Castillo, 31, admitted their participation in Padilla’s illegal activities, saying though that they received only P5,000 for every successful carjacking operation.

Another arrested suspect, Mark Inducil, pleaded innocence.

Police are presently hot on the trail of at least seven other gang members, including four women. They are also making moves to recover other stolen vehicles and arrest their buyers.

Manalo said at least five or six gang members, headed by Padilla, pulled off every operation, usually targeting Toyota Fortuners which they would dispose of for P350,000 through sellers identified only as Grace, Anthony and Allan.

Padilla and his gang were about to sell for P225,000 the Toyota Camry owned by former foreign affairs secretary Roberto Romulo when policemen engaged them in a shootout in Filinvest, Quezon City early this month.

Alimagno and Del Castillo were arrested, but Padilla managed to escape on board another Camry, which was recovered the next day at the parking lot of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center.

Manalo’s team eventually caught up with Padilla, who sustained two gunshot wounds in the head in a five-minute gunbattle. Doctors, however, said he died of asphyxiation.

The Commission on Human Rights and the Internal Affairs Service of the Philippine National Police are conducting separate probes of the incident amid accusations by Padilla’s mother, Malou, that her son was “summarily executed.”