Cops kill alleged leader of gun-for-hire gang in Quezon

LUCENA CITY – A suspected leader of a gun-for-hire gang who was also on the local police’s drug watchlist for drug trafficking was shot dead in an encounter with police operatives in Sariaya town in Quezon province on Thursday, police report said Friday.

Senior Supt. Antonio Yarra, Quezon police director, said the lawmen, armed with search warrant, swooped down at the residence of one Ruel Garcia Atienza, 42, in Barangay Concepcion Palasan early morning Thursday. Sensing the approaching policemen, Garcia engaged the lawmen in a gunfight where he was killed on the spot, report said.

From the police photos, Atienza’s body was lying on his bed on the floor, two corners of his mosquito net still untied.

Police recovered one caliber .45 pistol with loaded magazine and five plastic sachets of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) weighing 1.10 grams with street value of around P2,000.

Yarra said Garcia was the alleged leader of “Banahaw Group,” a gun-for-hire syndicate suspected in the killing of SPO2 Federico Alvarez De Guia Jr. in Candelaria, Quezon in 2009. Citing police records, Yarra said Atienza also had a string of warrants of arrest and was involved in different shooting incidents in Quezon and Batangas. He was also among drug suspects tagged as “high value target” on the Quezon police drug watchlist.