InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
Police in Cainta, Rizal, are in hot pursuit of members of the “Highway Boys” crime syndicate who execute their victims and cement the bodies inside drums before throwing these into the river.
Four members of the gang were killed in a shootout with Cainta police in Barangay San Andres on Tuesday as the criminals were about to throw into the river the body of a victim they cemented and inserted inside a cooler.
According to Col. Marlon Gnilo, chief of Cainta Police, a concerned citizen told them to respond immediately after he saw the gang killing a man, then inserting his body inside a cooler and pouring cement on him.
Gnilo said he immediately ordered his SWAT and intelligence operatives to respond. Therafter, police were able to intercept the gangmen who put up a fight.
In follow-up operations on Wednesday, police were able to recover another body that was cemented inside a drum and thrown into the river.
Gnilo said previous chiefs of police of Cainta were able to neutralize the syndicate before but new leaders have cropped up.
He said the gang was involved in all kinds of criminal activities, such as illegal drug dealing, robbery-holdup, gun-for-hire and “akyat bahay”.
Police dismantled the hut used by the syndicate as a drug den. They also recovered electronic gadgets taken by the gang in robberies.
Police plan to excavate the land where the hut stood and hope to find more bodies and continue to scour the river to look for other victims.
Gnilo added that the syndicate executes people who double-cross them in transactions, and as reported by some residents, inserted in drums, cemented and thrown into the river.
Many of the residents in the area however choose to keep silent about the gang’s activities due to fear of repercussions from the syndicate.
The two bodies recovered by police will be sent to the lab to determine their identities.
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