Muntinlupa police antidrug team sacked over extortion raps

The entire Station Drug Enforcement Unit (SDEU) of the Muntinlupa City police station has been relieved amid mounting complaints that its operatives were routinely engaged in extortion. National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director, Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, said on Tuesday that the relieved head of the SDEU, who escaped on Friday when four of his operatives were arrested for kidnapping, robbery and extortion, finally turned himself in. Senior Insp. Mark Kevin Pesigan, along with three other SDEU officers who remain at large, fled from the police station where NCRPO operatives had conducted an entrapment operation to free a drug suspect and her 7-year-old son. The eight antidrug operatives had initially demanded P400,000 from the suspect’s live-in partner in exchange for their release. —Matthew Reysio-Cruz