The chief of police of a police station in Zamboanga City and four of his men were arrested in an entrapment operation over complaints of drug-related extortion activity, the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) revealed on Tuesday, March 23.
Col. Tomas Frias Jr., director of the police’s IMEG, said the modus of the erring cops is to contact some people in their area of jurisdiction and inform them that they are included in the station’s drug list.
The policemen would then demand a huge sum of money in exchange for dropping the name on the list.
He identified those arrested as Police Maj. Orlyn Leyte, officer-in-charge of the Station 9 of the Zamboanga City Police; and his men Police Staff Sgts. Hegenio Salvador and Asser Abdulkadim; Police Corporals Ismael Sasapan and Juman Arabani. All the four policemen are members of the Station Drug Enforcement Unit.
“They were first placed under surveillance after an owner of a small business sought our help in apprehending the accused. It turned out that the suspects contacted the complainant and informed her that her name was included in the list of drug personalities being targeted for neutralization,” said Frias.
The entrapment was conducted on Monday at the police station and all the policemen were arrested after they received the marked money.
The suspects are now under the restricted custody of the local police and will be slapped with a criminal case of robbery extortion, and separate administrative cases that could lead to their dismissal from the service.