“Snow White” and the “seven dwarves” ended up behind bars just shortly after midnight Tuesday after the leader of the robbery group, whom the police arrested earlier, confessed that they were plotting to rob a pawnshop in Quezon City.
“Like in the tale, these suspects are miners. They come from Mt. Province and Benguet but instead of digging for gold, they dig for cash,” said Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Supt. Richard Albano.
Based on the information they got from the eighth “dwarf” and leader of the group, Julio Bidking, the police conducted an operation and caught Snow White and the rest of the gang.
Arrested were Cecile Ibañez, 28, of Negros Occidental; Ortiz Latungan, 48; Eric Secyang, 45; Arthur Bino, 26; Laurence Doyau, 38; and Tarex Tabayan, 27, all of Benguet; and Ruben Sebnangen, 34; and Elmo Bustarde, 35, both from Mt. Province.
At the time of their arrest, five of the men were asleep while the other two were in a tunnel they had been digging inside the apartment that Ibañez rented for the group.
Their plan was to build a tunnel around 20 to 25 meters long which would lead to the Ochoa Realica Pawnshop in front of their apartment, the police said.
“They were taking turns digging the tunnel when we caught them,” said theft and robbery section head Insp. Alan dela Cruz of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.
Hours before members of the gang were arrested, their leader Bidking was picked up by the police in Angeles City, Pampanga, at 4 p.m. on Monday.
During interrogation, he told the police about the group’s latest caper.
When members of the CIDU, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and Cordillera police raided the apartment at 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, they found the suspects.
Dela Cruz said they also discovered a man-sized hole inside one of the rooms which was stacked to the ceiling with sacks full of earth and other debris.
Also recovered were two hand grenades, a hydraulic jack, two hand drills, two crowbars, a head lamp, a gas tank and a portable electric fan.
Dela Cruz said that based on the robbers’ plans, they would dig a hole leading to a toilet in the pawnshop beside the vault.