MANILA, Philippines -- A day after raiding two Internet shops allegedly used in a cyber sex racket, the Quezon City Police District on Wednesday launched a manhunt for the suspected leader of a syndicate behind the illicit operation.
Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said investigators were verifying information that suspect John Norbert Guzman returned to his hometown in Iloilo a few days before police raided his computer shops in Greater Lagro and Project 4 on Monday night.
Polcie were also checking reports that Guzman owned at least 100 computer units used in cyber pornography in his Internet shops somewhere in Iloilo, Mabanag said.
He said the suspect also provided 50 computer sets to another cyber sex ring in Mandaluyong City.
“We believe he made Iloilo as the base of his operations. He’s a talented and rich guy from that area,” Mabanag told reporters.
Superintendent Antonio Yarra, QCPD General Investigation Section chief, said Guzman seldom met with the leaders of the smaller cells of his group and communicated with them via mobile phones only.
“Guzman only sends the payments to his members through their electronic bank accounts. Their operation is really sophisticated,” Yarra said.
“It’s also a highly lucrative business,” he added. A cell, like the one raided in Project 4, supposedly earns P100,000 a week from clients in Europe, the United States and Japan who do not know what they view and pay for are not real live shows but pre-recorded videos.
Led by Yarra, policemen from QCPD swooped down on the two Internet shops registered to Guzman’s name and took in eight men, including a teenager, for questioning.
Policemen seized 19 computer sets during the raids.
Members of the syndicate dupe their customers, who pay $1.98 for three straight days of being logged on, by pretending to be the female models in the videos that they then show to the customers.
Meanwhile, the eight males who were caught in Monday’s raid were released Tuesday and Wednesday, police said.
