2 escaped drug lords recaptured as 7 of their ‘rescuers’ fall

MANILA, Philippines - Two Chinese drug lords, who escaped last February, were recaptured in San Juan City at past midnight yesterday by police officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

Convicted drug dealers Li Lan Yan, alias “Jackson Dy;” and his wife, Wang Li Na, were arrested by Senior Superintendent Jose Espino and his team in a house at Infanta Subdivision in Little Baguio, where they had been hiding since March. Li and his wife are being held in the CIDG office at Camp Crame.

The leader and seven alleged members of the Ozamiz robbery gang, who staged the drug convicts’ escape, were arrested in Cavite province Friday night.

Li admitted that a member of the Ozamiz gang had visited him at the Cavite provincial jail to offer an escape plan in exchange for P5 million.

Li, his wife, and another convicted drug dealer, Li Tian Hua, were snatched by around 14 armed men last Feb. 21 as they were on their way to attend a court hearing in Cavite in connection with their arrest in 2003 for possessing at least 350 kilos of shabu in three drug laboratories in Tanza, Cavite; Parañaque and Quezon City.

They were convicted in a separate drug case in Parañaque in 2009.

Police arrested at least four people, among them a village chief in Imus City, for their alleged participation in the escape of the three Chinese drug convicts.

Among those arrested were Rodel Cambongga, 24; Emiliano Quilicol, 43; Rene Bersales, 33; and Leovino Fontanilla, 46, barangay chairman of Bayang Luma IV.

Ozamiz gang leader, 7 others arrested

Calabarzon police director Chief Superintendent Benito Estipona told The STAR that on Thursday night, police teams staged operations in Bacoor and Dasmariñas, both in Cavite, after receiving a tip that the Ozamiz gang will stage a heist.

Police officers arrested alleged gang members Nestor Buenabente, 36; Rogie Soriano, 29; Cesar Devera, 57; Donde Pedrosa, 25; and Alvin Cuyag, 30, at a house in Paliparan 3, Dasmariñas City, Estipona said.

The gang’s leader, convicted robber Ricky Cadavero, and Wilfredo Panogalinga Jr., were recaptured in another operation in Cavite Friday night, Estipona said.

Cadavero admitted contacting Dy and that they planned to rob business establishments in Calabarzon, according to CIDG Region 4A director Senior Superintendent Pedro Cabatingan.

Cadavero escaped from the New Bilibid Prison last year with the help of three men who posed as his lawyers. He has since been sentenced to serve 269 years in prison for robbing establishments in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, said then National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina in a press conference last February.

He said civil society groups raised P300,000 as a reward for Cadavero’s recapture.

Panogalinga was identified by witnesses as one of four men who robbed a 7-11 convenience store on F.B. Harrison street in Manila and killed Robert Armstrong, an executive of an English language testing center, on Sept. 2, 2012.