KFR gang leader nabbed in P’sinan

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — The suspected leader of a notorious kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) gang tagged in 15 abductions nationwide was arrested in Bolinao town Wednesday morning.

Police said Jessie Ruelas Pepino, alleged leader of the KFR gang bearing his name, was nabbed by a combined team of the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response and the provincial and regional police while swimming at the beach in Barangay Arneda with his family and friends.

"This (arrest) is a product of good intelligence and I commend the police personnel for doing their job," said Senior Superintendent Alan Purisima, provincial police director, as he presented Pepino to the local media.

Pepino is a brother of convicted kidnapper Jerry Pepino, who is now detained at the National Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City. Jerry headed the Baling-baling KFR gang whose members mostly hailed from Surigao del Sur.

Jessie Pepino was arrested along with his henchmen by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force in Cebu in 1998, and again in Cebu in August 2006 by the Aviation Security Group.

Charges of illegal possession of firearms and usurpation of authority were filed against them in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, but they jumped bail.

Purisima said Pepino spent his rest and recreation in Bolinao where he had built a house.

He said the Pepino gang is the umbrella group of small KFR units, whose victims were mostly Filipino-Chinese across the country.