Three alleged gang members were arrested for allegedly luring a victim with a woman, only to rob him later on in Caloocan City, the Northern Police District (NPD) said.
In a briefing on Thursday, NPD special operations chief Lt. Col. Emmanuel Gomez said the alleged robbery took place at a parking lot in Barangay 78 near Monumento on Wednesday and were later caught in the same barangay that same day. ‘It’s the same modus operandi as the Sputnik gang’s. They use women to be part of their transactions, which is sex or prostitution. They come, then they mob him and hold him up,’ Gomez explained in a mix of Filipino and English.
He noted that the victim did not report the incident to authorities over fear of retaliation, but barangay officials flagged the incident through closed-circuit television footage and reported it to the police.
Authorities recovered the victim’s cellphone, wallet and other personal belongings as well as an improvised pen gun, a bullet and a knife from the suspects, NPD Director Brig. Gen. Jerry Protacio detailed at the briefing.
Protacio only identified the suspects as ‘Jonel,’ 29; ‘Raymond,’ 40; and ‘Billy,’ 42, all of whom have had previous cases of violations of Republic Act No. 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act and Presidential Decree No. 1602, which penalizes illegal gambling.
Article continues after this advertisement
The NPD director further pointed out, in a video shown to reporters at the briefing, that the three suspects all had tattoos on their body indicating that they were part of a certain ‘Sputnik gang.’
Protacio added that authorities have yet to track down the woman whom the suspects used to lure the victim.
At the same briefing, NPD investigation and detective management chief Lt. Col. Angelito de Juan said the district police recorded 88 incidents of robbery from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, arresting 168 suspects in the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela.
De Juan said this represented a decrease from the 94 robbery cases it had logged and the 140 suspects it had arrested during the same period in 2024. /jpv