CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna – Joint elements of the Oriental Mindoro police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group gunned down a suspected leader of a kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) syndicate in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro yesterday morning, authorities said.
Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, Oriental Mindoro police director, said Romeo Alcantara, who led the Alcantara kidnap-for-ransom gang and the most wanted person in Mindoro, was to be served a warrant of arrest in one of his hideouts in Sitio Arado Dos in Barangay Teresita, Mansalay town at around 4:30 a.m.
But instead of giving himself up peacefully, Alcantara shot it out with the policemen with a 12-gauge shotgun. After a few minutes, he lay dead with multiple gunshot wounds.
Cruz told The STAR that Alcantara was the primary suspect in the kidnapping of a certain Dr. Gregorio Horra in Victoria town a few months ago. Cash and jewelry amounting to P500,000 was also stolen from the doctor.
Cruz added that Alcantara also faced 17 counts of rape in Victoria town and linked to a series of robbery-holdups in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro and in Naujan and Calapan towns in Oriental Mindoro.
Cruz said they are now hunting down five henchmen of Alcantara who escaped after their gang leader was slain. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe