NARC COPS TAGGED IN P100T EXTORTION

THREE Regional Anti Narcotics Office (Rano) policemen and a civilian agent
were arrested last night by joint PNP special units for allegedly extorting
money from and arbitrarily detaining a Canadian national inside their camp.

Ghotbaddin Hassanpoor, 43, alleged that PO1s Benedict Modina and Stephen
Taneo and PO2 Raul Gador, as well as civilian agent Jose Montalban, forced
him into a van and locked him up at the Rano headquarters last Friday.

He was released, he said, after he paid them P100,000.

Rano Chief Vicente Loot said he did not know of the alleged illegal
detention as he was in Bantayan Island that day and returned to
headquarters only last Monday.

Gador, Taneo and Montalban were stripped of their police badge, disarmed
and handcuffed after Hassanpoor picked them out from a line-up last night.

Gador was still wearing the Canadian national's wristwatch. Marijuana was
found in a wallet in his pocket.

Modina did not report yesterday.

Naktaf Chief Jose Jorge Corpuz said the suspects will be charged with
physical injury, arbitrary detention, abuse of authority and robbery with
extortion.

As of last night, Hassan-poor remained under the protective custody of the
Traffic Management Group (TMG).

Hassanpoor said he was walking in front the Rano headquarters along Salinas
Drive in Barangay Apas at 6:10 a.m. when a van blocked him. He said four
armed men alighted from the van and forced him inside.

He said he struggled and shouted at passersby to call the police, but the
four men told him they were policemen. He noticed, however, that they did
not have identification cards. Nor were they in uniform.

Inside the Rano headquarters, Gador allegedly showed him a plastic sachet
of shabu, which the Rano policeman threatened to plant on him so they could
file illegal drugs possession against him.

At first, he was asked to produce P3,000 in exchange for his freedom. The
Canadian national said he told them he did not have money because he is
only a pharmacy student of the University of the Visayas (UV).

But at 2 p.m. he consented. On their way to the bank, his
"kidnappers" raised the demand to P100,000, which he was able to withdraw
after showing the bank manager his passport and Visa card.

Hassanpoor said Montalban accompanied him inside the Equitable Bank at the
Reclamation area, while the three policemen waited in the van. Before they
went in, Gador and Modina allegedly threatened to kill him if he would make
a "false move" and alert bank personnel.

Still, he said he was detained for more than two hours at the Rano office
even after paying the suspects.

He said Taneo and Modina brought him back to his boarding house in
Elizabeth Pond using a Toyota.

Hassanpoor said he was released past 5 p.m.

He said Gador seemed to be the leader because he was the one issuing orders.

"My arms were paining me because he continued hitting me so I would get
inside the van and even when I was inside the detention cell," he said.

The incident brings to mind the arrest of Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) Chief
Nicolas Salvador and PO3 Razul Segismar last May 28 on suspicion they
kidnapped and extorted from two men they tagged as big-time shabu pushers.

However, the Visayas Ombudsman's office dismissed their case, taking into
account their alibi that they were caught by their fellow policemen
conducting a buy-bust operation against the leader of the two men earlier
arrested, but have accused them of kidnapping.