Kidnap gang chief recaptured after 2011 escape

MANILA, Philippines - A convicted kidnap gang leader, who escaped from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in 2011, was arrested Thursday night by Quezon City police officers, who believe he was planning another hit, officials said yesterday.

Bayan Abbas, 46, was arrested at the Mabuhay Rotunda by policemen who tailed him and his alleged coddler, Usop Abdulkader, said Quezon City Police District director Senior Superintendent Richard Albano.

“He (Abbas) could have been planning another hit since he had been to different places lately,” Albano told reporters.

Abbas was convicted in September 2005 for kidnapping Filipino-Chinese Michelle Ragus in Valenzuela City in 1998. Albano said Abbas escaped with another inmate on Dec. 9, 2011 from the medium security facility of the NBP.

Before the arrest, police received information that the suspect had been hiding in Baseco Compound and in Quiapo, both in Manila.

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force arrested Abbas and his gang in 1998 at the rotunda, where he had arranged to receive the ransom of P5 million, according to QCPD deputy director for administration Senior Superintendent Joel Pagdilao.

“Arrest in 1998 and re-arrest in 2011 both happened at Mabuhay Rotunda,” Pagdilao said.

QCPD special operations unit chief Superintendent Dionisio Bartolome, whose men arrested Abbas and Usop, said Abbas was charged with evasion of service of sentence while Usop was charged with obstruction of apprehension and prosecution of a criminal offender.