MANILA, Philippines—Police arrested over the weekend six alleged members of a notorious street gang, including its supposed leader, believed to be behind the series of jeepney robberies in Tondo, Manila.
Clad in orange prison T-shirts and with their hands cuffed, the six were presented to Mayor Alfredo Lim in a news briefing at city hall on Monday.
“You should stop what you’re doing because the police will always run after you,” Lim told them.
Lim identified the arrested gang leader as Ronnel Abuloc, 29, said to be the founder of True Brown Style (TBS), a notorious neighborhood gang in Tondo.
Also arrested were Abuloc’s younger brother Randel, 23; Christopher Enriquez, 19; Marissa Borja, 42; Darwin Dionisio, 20; and Julius Joe Castro, 19.
Chief Inspector Fernando Opelanio, intelligence operation unit chief of the Manila Police District, said his men swooped down on the residence of Abuloc at around 8 p.m. Saturday on the strength of a search warrant.
Seized from his house were 15 plastic sachets of marijuana, two unlicensed pistols, live ammunition, bladed weapons, and paraphernalia used in sniffing shabu.
According to Opelanio, members of the group were involved in a number of jeepney robberies in Tondo and nearby commercial districts.
He said the six men were positively identified by their victims in a police lineup.
TBS members, he added, were known to sell marijuana to high school students in the area.