Police probing local exec's involvement with Flores group

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/03/2009 4:02 PM

Police are investigating a local official's possible involvement with the notorious Flores robbery group, whose leader was killed by police in an encounter in Cebu City last week.

National Police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa announced that the local executive had allegedly provided protection for a member of the group who was wounded in a recent encounter with policemen.

Verzosa declined to name the elected official, who, according to reports, employed the Flores robbery gang member as his bodyguard.

A radio dzMM report, meanwhile, said there were also information gathered by police that the local executive also employed another member of the group, Armando Domingo, as a security guard at his piggery and cattle farm.

Domingo was slain by policemen during a shootout at Greenbelt mall in Makati City, where the gang entered and took expensive watches from a store.

Law enforcement agencies, including the national police and the National Bureau of Investigation, intensified manhunt operations against the members of the group.

The operations resulted in the killing of the group's alleged leader, Alvin Flores, during an encounter at the Tripina Ceneca Compound in Barangay Compostela last October 29.

Three other members of the gang were also killed in the encounter, police said. Two of the fatalities were identified as Richie Hijapon and Mark Salamanca. With a report from Noel Alamar, radio dzMM

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