Police say they hold pictures of ‘con artists’

THE Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) has obtained pictures of the five persons who allegedly tricked a 62-year-old woman into giving them almost P400,000 for a business venture.

The pictures were taken from the footage of security cameras in two malls in Mandaue City, where the suspects transacted with Ma. Ester Imperial of Barangay Subangdaku last July 11.

The suspects, two women and three men, convinced Imperial to withdraw P355,000 from two banks in Cebu City and join them in a business venture.

A woman who introduced herself as a Malaysian had approached her while she was eating lunch in a mall and prom- ised to give her $50,000 on the spot if she joined their new venture.

The woman said they would invest in a company selling food preservatives.

After handing the group her money at her house, she was given a bag, which she thought contained $50,000. When she opened it, she saw a bundle of folded papers. Swindling charges will be filed soon against the suspects, Noval said.

Meanwhile, two suspected robbers riding an unregistered motorcycle were arrested by patrolling police on P. Remedio Street, Barangay Banilad, Mandaue City, yesterday dawn.

Ian Douglas Dacapio, 27, of barangay Bacayan, Cebu City and Edmar Lahoy-Lahoy, 20, of baran- gay Talamban, Cebu City, were detained in the Casuntingan Police Station. Lahoy-Lahoy was later identified by a woman as the one who robbed her at gunpoint in Banilad last Saturday. Plate number Around 4 a.m., PO1 Oliver Gipanao and PO1 Gerald Suquib were patrolling P. Remedio St. when they noticed the two suspects leaning on a motorcycle with no plate number.

The police officers caught the suspects after a brief chase.

They asked Dacapio, who drove the motorcycle, to present his driver’s license but he failed to show any.

A small pack of suspected shabu, drug paraphernalia, a folding knife, three mobile phones and four memory cards were later recovered from Dacapio.

The police officers also recovered a partly consumed marijuana cigarette and a knife from Lahoy-Lahoy.

At the Casuntingan Police Station, robbery victim Thelma Ouano identified Lahoy-Lahoy as the one who pointed a gun at her and her 16-yearold daughter outside their house in Sitio Pine Tree, Barangay Banilad last Saturday.

Ouano, 53, earlier reported that four men on two motorcycles robbed her and her daughter. The suspects fled with her P15,000 and a mobile phone worth P4,000, and her daughter’s P3,000 and phone worth P10,000.

Dacapio and LahoyLahoy will face charges for possession of deadly weapons and possession of illegal drugs. Dacapio will also face a charge of driving without a license.

Alert This, as the Cebu City Police Office will be on heightened alert today as part of the security preparations for President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona).

All police personnel are not allowed to leave their work and are expected to be at their posts all the time.

Meanwhile, about P160,000 worth of broilers were allegedly stolen from a poultry farm in Barangay Daanlungsod, Alcoy, Cebu.

Police said the incident was discovered by farm owner Lilian Nayga, 43, last Friday while she and her staff were harvesting the chickens.

“The chickens were supposed to be delivered,” said Insp. Crisanto Abella, head of Alcoy Police Station.

Nayga, who owned K and K poultry farm, reported the incident on Saturday at 9 a.m. and sought the help of police.

Before the incident was found out, Nayga, together with her staff, was checking the broilers at 2 a.m. and placed them on containers of a delivery truck.

When Nayga was counting the chickens, she noticed that about 1,100 broilers were missing from the three buildings of her farm.