Police nab head of gang linked to slays, drugs

BATANGAS CITY—The alleged leader of a crime group operating in Batangas and nearby provinces was arrested by police here on Wednesday.

Senior Superintendent Omega Jireh Fidel, Batangas police director, said on Thursday that operatives of the police provincial intelligence division arrested Renato Gregorio, 24, allegedly head of a crime group that is named after him and is engaged in assassinations, robberies and illegal drug trade.

Supt. Christopher Birung, head of the Batangas police intelligence branch, said police were led to Gregorio in  a house of one of his gang members by an informant.

Armed with an arrest warrant for a murder case, police raided the house of the alleged gang member, Luis Magpantay, and arrested Gregorio, Magpantay and a certain Ferdinand Ramos. The three were caught using shabu during the raid.

Gregorio and Magpantay are Tanauan City residents while Ramos is from Laguna, Birung said.

Gregorio was arrested on the strength of a warrant   issued by Judge Louis Acosta of Calamba City’s Regional Trial Court Branch 36 for the murder of PO2 Rufino Mendoza on  Feb. 16 in Barangay Uno (village), Calamba City, Laguna.

Mendoza was a member of the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Force (AIDSOTF) based in Camp Crame at the time of his death.

Birung said Gregorio was also facing murder and frustrated murder cases after he was identified as the gunman who shot and killed SPO4 Wilfredo Luna, an AIDSOTF member of the Tanauan City police station, and wounded a certain Lauro Macayanan on April 16 in Barangay Sambat, Tanauan City.

Fidel, the Batangas police chief, said Mendoza and Luna were seen as obstacles to Gregorio’s crime operations, particularly the gang’s involvement in illegal drugs.