KFR gang leader falls in Laguna

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna — Intelligence agents of the regional police arrested in San Pedro town last Friday the suspected leader of a kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) gang behind the 2001 abduction of a five-year-old boy and his nanny in Oriental Mindoro.

Chief Superintendent Prospero Noble, Calabarzon police director, said the suspect, Marlon Cortez, who carried a bounty of P200,000, masterminded the abduction of Remar Medina, a son of a wealthy couple in Oriental Mindoro, and his nanny, Myla Mañada, while they were on their way home from school in Calapan City on March 20, 2001.

When presented to the media yesterday, Cortez admitted his crime, saying he had been hiding in different places in the Calabarzon region using various aliases after the ransom payoff was foiled.

Superintendent Rosaurio Acio, regional intelligence chief, said Cortez’s gang demanded P5-million from the boy’s family, who immediately sought police help, resulting in the arrest of one of Cortez’s cohorts.