Police major, subordinates arrested for extortion in Zamboanga City
COTABATO CITY --- A police major based in Zamboanga City and four subordinates are now detained for attempting to extort P90,000 from a merchant they threatened to charge with possession of illegal drugs without basis.
Major Orlyn Leyte, acting chief of the Zamboanga City Police Station 9, and accomplices, Sergeants Hehenio Salvador and Asser Abdulkarim and Corporals Ismael Sasapan and Juman Arabani, are to be prosecuted for violation of the Republic Act 3019, also known as the Anti-Corrupt Practices Act.
In a statement Tuesday, the Police Regional Office-9 said the five suspects shall also be charged with corresponding administrative cases.
Initial reports from PRO-9 stated that Leyte fell in an entrapment operation Monday night in Zamboanga City based on a complaint by a resident of Barangay Ayala in Zamboanga City whose house he and his subordinates raided in the guise of an anti-narcotics search that turned fruitless.
Leyte allegedly asked for P90,000 from the complainant for them not to file a criminal case against the latter.
He did not resist arrest when operatives from different units of PRO-19 and personnel from the police’s Special Action Force and the Highway Patrol Group frisked and cuffed him after receiving P90,000 from their supposed victim in a sting past 6:00 p.m. Monday.