Police cripples notorious Cavite robbery group

CAMP GEN. PANTALEON GARCIA, IMUS, Cavite – Police believe the robbery group preying on Luzon Brokerage Corp. (LBC) branch offices in the province has been neutralized after three suspected gang members were killed in a shootout last Thursday in Bacoor City.

Two other suspects, who struck at the same money and package forwarding office, were also killed in a shootout with police in Barangay Bucandala in Imus City, the province’s capital, in March this year, bringing to five the number LBC branch robbery suspects slain.

Cavite Police Provincial Office (PPO) reports showed that there were at least nine LBC branch office robberies in the province this year alone.

The robberies were perpetrated by motorcycle-riding men in Dasmariñas, Imus and Bacoor cities and the municipality of General Mariano Alvarez (GMA).

There were also a number of LBC and other money remittance establishment robberies reported in the areas in previous years, the PPO reported.

Superintendent Rommel C. Estolano, Bacoor police chief, said that the remains of the three robbery suspects killed in the shootout with the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team remained unclaimed at Mesina Funeral Homes morgue.

The still unidentified suspects, believed to be between 22 to 28 years old, traded shots with the SWAT team at the height of negotiations for their surrender.

Chief Inspector Romulo C. Dimaya, chief of PPO Investigation and Detection Management Division, said that the three suspects in Bacoor could be the same perpetrators that struck simultaneously at LBC branches in GMA and Dasmariñas City before noon Wednesday since they employed the same ploy prior to the crime and had similar appearances with the Bacoor suspects based on closed circuit television footages.