Hijack gang leader nabbed

Agents of the Northern Police District (NPD) intelligence unit arrested a convicted leader of a notorious hijack gang wanted by authorities for the last three years on Friday in Binondo, Manila.

NPD director Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr. said that Florencio Ancino, 29, of 464 Urbiztondo, Binondo, Manila, was apprehended on the order of Malabon City Regional Trial Court Judge Emmanuel Laurea.

Ancino, tagged by the police as the leader of the Ancino Hijack Gang, was convicted and sentenced to serve 10 to 17 years in prison by the Malabon City court in May 2000 in connection with a 1998 hijacking incident in the city.

Ancino went into hiding after the verdict was handed down.

NPD-District Police Intelligence Unit (DPIU) agents arrested Ancino at Plaza del Conde in Binondo at around 8:35 p.m. on Friday.

Chief Inspector Sotero Ramos Jr., NPD-DPIU chief, said Ancino and his group hijacked a 10-wheeler truck containing Nestle products valued at some P1.3 million on July 25, 1998 in Bgy. Longos, Malabon.

The cargo truck had just came out of the Melicom Brokerage Corp. in Bgy. Longos to deliver the milk products when Ancino and three other armed men seized the truck and its cargo.

According to DPIU agent Senior Police Officer 1 Eduardo Año, the Taguig police are also after Ancino for the same hijacking offense.

"He’s been sought by the authorities for the past several years and finally the long arms of the law caught him up Friday," Año said.