10 armed men rob Cavite mall

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna — Ten suspected members of an organized crime group in full battle gear struck at a shopping mall in Imus, Cavite past midnight yesterday, disarming nine security guards and ransacking the mall’s administration office and a gun store.

Senior Superintendent Mark Edison Belarma, Region 4-A (Calabarzon) chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the robbers, armed with M-16 Armalite rifles, grenades and caliber. 45 pistols and wearing SWAT and police uniforms and bullet-proof vests, arrived at the FRC Mall along the Aguinaldo Highway at about 1:20 a.m. on board two unlicensed vehicles.

Belarma said the armed men introduced themselves to the security guards at the mall’s main entrance as police officers, but once inside, announced the robbery.

They herded and tied up the security guards and then forcibly opened the Casa Armas gun store on the third floor and also ransacked the administration office of FRC Mall.

The heist took only 20 to 30 minutes, Belarma said.

"We will invite the nine security guards as part of the investigation to get vital information from them and possibly to identify the robbers through artist’s sketches," Belarma told The STAR

He suspects that the robbers belong to the same group behind last year’s heists in the cities of Taguig and Pasig.