Highway patrol cop busted for P50K extortion attempt

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Agents of the police’s Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group arrested in an entrapment operation here on Friday a policeman who attempted to extort P50,000 from an owner of a car impounded for wrong placement of a license plate.

The suspect, Police Master Sgt. Nasrollah Gani of the Regional Highway Patrol Group-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, was entrapped by IMEG operatives, led by Lt. Col. Aldrin Abila, right in their headquarters at the PC Hill here, less than a hundred meters away from the Cotabato City Police Office.

The operation that resulted in the arrest of Gani was launched after an owner of a Honda Civic car that he and his companions impounded for an improper license plate set-up complained about his demand of P50,000 cash for the release of the unit.

Gani was immediately cuffed by IMEG personnel after receiving money from an emissary of his supposed victim in a payoff at the premises of the RHPU-BARMM’s main headquarters, close to command posts of different police units.

A companion of Gani, Police Sergeant Benigno Mercado, who was not a target of the operation, was badly injured when he fell while trying to escape after he fired his gun at the IMEG team.

Mercado was also arrested and detained by IMEG agents, to be prosecuted for assault on persons in authority.

Gani and Mercado are now both clamped down in a police detention facility, awaiting prosecution.

Besides the marked money Gani had received, the IMEG team that laid the sting that led to his arrest also seized from him a 9 millimeter pistol, a 5.56 Galil assault rifle and ammunition.