Metro cops arrest 4 bank rob suspects
By Marlon Ramos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:44:00 11/25/2008
Filed Under: Banking, Robbery and theft, Police, Crime
MANILA, Philippines--The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) claimed on Tuesday that its intelligence agents averted another robbery with the arrest of a woman, who allegedly belonged to a band of robbers masquerading as policemen and soldiers, in Taguig City over the weekend.
Jocelyn Hernandez was arrested by members of NCRPO’s Regional Police Intelligence Operations Unit (RPIOU) inside The Fort Bonifacio Global City around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
Her arrest came a day after regional police operations personnel arrested suspected gang leader Armando Deheno along with three of his supposed henchmen in Guadalupe, Makati City.
Director Leopoldo Bataoil, NCRPO chief, said the two successive operations against the group would lead to a significant decline in robbery incidents in the metropolis.
“The arrest of these suspects was a very big blow to the robbery syndicates victimizing banks in Metro Manila,” Bataoil said in an interview.
Supt. Valeriano de Leon, regional police operations chief, said Hernandez was supposed to meet with other members of a gang whom police called “Inday Rocha” when she was accosted by undercover policemen.
He said Hernandez and her group were in the area to rob an armored van, which had just collected money from a nearby bank.
“That place was one of the rendezvous places of the syndicate. They usually meet there before they hit a bank or armored van,” De Leon told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
However, the woman’s cohorts were able to escape on board an SUV and several motorcycles.
De Leon said the arrest was prompted by information provided to them by Deheno, adding that they expected the eventual neutralization of the group in the coming months.
According to De Leon, Hernandez figured prominently in closed-circuit television footage taken from at least three establishments, which the group robbed several months ago.
He said the suspect was seen in CCTV footages as the woman who was putting money inside a duffel bag when robbers struck at the branches of the Land Bank of the Philippines and the United Coconut Planters Bank in Quezon City.
Hernandez, he said, also admitted her involvement in the armored van robbery in Market!Market! early this year.
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