Pentagon gang member nabbed in GenSan

CAMP SIONCGO, Maguindanao — Army agents arrested the other day a notorious lieutenant of Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang leader Tahir Alonto in General Santos City.

Reports reaching the Army’s 6th Infantry Division here said the suspect, Dario Quiam, also known as Maguing, tried to elude arrest but was shot in the leg by operatives of the Army’s 12th Intelligence and Security Unit led by Major Joel Dela Torre.

Quiam was one of more than a dozen Pentagon gang members who, along with Alonto, bolted from the Sarangani Provincial Jail three years ago.

He was also implicated in seven recent kidnappings the Pentagon allegedly perpetrated in the South Cotabato-Sarangani-Gen. Santos (Socsargen) area and was among the suspects in last year’s spate of bombings of commercial establishments in the city.

Quiam was arrested after a month-long surveillance by combined agents of ISU-12, the Military Intelligence Group, the 29th Military Intelligence Community, the 601st Brigade and the anti-kidnapping Task Force Socsargen. — John Unson and Roel Pareño