3 men arrested for extortion on airline
Credit to Author: Benjamin L. Vergara, TMT| Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2020 05:43:35 +0000
AVIATION police arrested three men who introduced themselves as immigration officers while trying to extort some P60,000 from a budget airline as penalty or payment.
The Philippine National Police Aviation Security Group conducted an entrapment operation against the suspects at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminal 3 following complaints of Royal Air management on Thursday afternoon.
The three were about to receive the cash from Royal Air staff when they were arrested.
Police identified the suspects as Rino Romero, who stood as the leader, Rene Ares Cascano and Jodrel Joe Victoriano.
Captain Roberto Papa, Aviation police intelligence chief, said Royal Air complained that the suspects were asking for P60,000 as penalty or payment for its non-commercial flight.
Royal Air Philippines is a Philippine-registered budget airline established on Aug. 22, 2002 as a chartered airline.
Police said later during investigation, Cascano and Victoriano were identified as groundhandlers of Royal Air.
Immigration Port Operation Division chief Grifton Medina denied the three suspects were immigration employees.