Friday, August 31, 2007
How Meloy gang started
BEFORE the Casi-mero “Meloy” Garcia Robbery Group was created in early 2006, its members belonged to a separate band called the Roy Fernandez Robbery Group, which focused its operations in Luzon.
Acting Cebu City Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador said the relationship of the members of the group went sour, causing the split.
Harris Atega (who was gunned down last January on Tormis St., Barangay Sambag I, Cebu City), Casimero Garcia and his brother Valentino Jr., Rodulfo Atega, and Cresencio “Bruts” Reguya went back to their home province of Bohol and formed the new group.
They were able to recruit other members identified as Arsenio Polo, alias Butyok, Anecito Nuez, Joseph Moraga and former security guard Danilo Flores, who reportedly was the latest to join the group.
The names of Gilven Nuez and Sofronio Remoreras also surfaced during the Bank of Commerce heist in Tagbilaran City, Bohol last Tuesday.
Of the 10 members of the group identified by the police, three of them remain at large—Polo, Anecito and Flores.
Casimero, Reguya, Gilven and Remoreras were arrested in a joint operation by a composite team of police operatives in Bohol and the in-house security personnel of former Panglao, Bohol mayor Doloreich Dumaluan.
The security guards were assigned to the beach resort Dumaluan owned in Barangay Tawala.
The suspects went to the resort after the Bank of Commerce heist. Of the P90,000 cash taken, the police recovered about P30,000.
Atega was arrested by the four-man team led by Supt. Pablo Labra II, whom Comendador sent to Atega’s house in San Miguel,
Bohol last Wednesday.
Valentino, meanwhile, was arrested last June 14 in a raid by the Cebu City Police Anti-Robbery and Thievery Task Force headed by Labra in Consolacion, Cebu.
Moraga was also earlier arrested in Bohol.
The group was armed with a baby Armalite, an Uzi/Ingram and 9mm guns when pulling off heists and used a Lite Ace van, Toyota Corolla and motorcycles as getaway vehicles.
Cellular phones were also vital in their activities. (JST)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 31, 2007 issue)
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