4 of 11 ‘ninja cops’ arrested in Manila entrapment operation

Joint elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) have arrested four anti-drug police officers while manhunt operation continues against seven other “ninja cops” for the alleged kidnapping and robbery extortion of the girlfriend of an inmate at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

Arrested were identified as Senior Police Officer 2 (SPO2) Ricky Pelicano, P02 Wilson Sanchez, P01 Joselito Ereneo and P01 Frances Camua. They were arrested by joint teams from the Northern Police District, the PNP Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF), the Anti-Kidnapping Group, the Malabon City Police Station and the Highway Patrol Group.

The team, however, is still hunting down the seven other cohorts who are members of the PNP’s Civil Security Group (CSG) and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

The joint operation was launched on May 21 after relatives of the victim reported a kidnapping incident last May 20. The victim was abducted last May 20 in Quezon City after she visited her boyfriend Raymond Bongabon, an inmate at the Medium Security Compound of the NBP.

The suspects, who were all police officers, also took the victim’s Starex van along with other items including a set of jewelry, an iPhone 7, Laptop and P6,000, authorities said.

The group called the victim’s family and demanded P5 million in exchange for her liberty. They also called Bongabon to give a separate ransom of P2 million.

The suspects also ordered the victim to produce 1 kilo of shabu. They received the shabu and still insisted on the payment of ransom on Sunday evening. However, the ransom payment did not materialize which was why the suspects filed a case for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act against the victim using the shabu she transacted as evidence.

The  suspects then brought the victim to Tondo Medical Center for physical examination as a standard operational procedure to make it look like the arrest of the victim was legitimate.

Authorities rescued the victim and arrested four of the 11 police officers in an entrapment operation.

The four will be facing an administrative complaint and will undergo inquest proceedings for kidnapping and planting of evidence. They were immediately relieved from their post, disarmed of their respective service pistol, police ID and badge.