Kidnap gang leader falls

MANILA, Philippines - Police yesterday arrested the suspected leader of a kidnapping group which seized a businessman in Cavite in April last year.

Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr., chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said the group of Rodel Ledesma was also behind the rash of robberies and hijackings in Cavite, Laguna and Las Piñas City.

Pagdilao said Ledesma and one of his henchmen, Gabriel Maligsa, alias Gabo, were arrested when his men served a search warrant for loose firearms at the gang leader’s house in Barangay 3, Bacoor, Cavite yesterday.

Ledesma and Maligsa yielded a caliber .45 automatic pistol, a caliber .32 pistol, a grenade, an electronic scale for illegal drugs, and five sachets of shabu.

A civilian volunteer led elements of the Laguna and Cavite CIDG headed by Senior Superintendent Bernabe Balba, chief of CIDG-Southern Tagalog, to Ledesma’s residence at around 5 a.m. yesterday.

While Ledesma was undergoing investigation at the CIDG office at Camp Vicen-te Lim in Calamba City, businessman Benjamin Jaro arrived and positively identified him as one of his kidnappers on April 1, 2011 in Cavite.

Jaro said the suspects demanded P30 million for his release and that he was freed after P5 million was paid.

Balba said Ledesma’s group is in the watch list of the Cavite CIDG for a robbery in Barangay Baco, Kawit town on Oct. 8, 2008.               – With Ed Amoroso