Woman gun-for-hire group leader, financier nabbed in Pangasinan

FILE: Pangasinan (Photo: Mike Gonzalez/ Wikipedia)

UMINGAN, Pangasinan — A woman, tagged as leader of a gun-for-hire syndicate operating in Pangasinan and other provinces, was arrested around noon Tuesday in Umingan town by joint elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Umingan police.

Lawmen led by the CIDG arrested Loida Mendoza y Gonzales at her residence on Rizal Street, Barangay Poblacion East in Umingan when they served a warrant for her arrest for double murder docketed under Criminal Case No. SCC-5773 dated Sept. 12, 2017.

No bail bond was recommended for her provisional liberty.

Mendoza, according to the police, was listed as the leader of the Gonzales Group of guns-for-hire in Pangasinan.

This  group was also listed as a newly identified criminal group by the police in the adjacent Lupao, Nueva Ecija.

Chief Inspector Jose Abaya III, chief of police of Umingan, said it is possible that Mendoza’s group also had victims in Lupao that was why it was tagged as a newly identified criminal group in that town.

Abaya said Mendoza had long been placed under surveillance by both the CIDG and Umingan police for her criminal activities.

She was also identified as protector/financier of the Pogito Group of guns-for-hire also operating in Pangasinan and adjacent provinces, the police said.

The suspect was brought to the CIDG Satellite Office in Urdaneta City for proper disposition and documentation.

With the arrest of Mendoza, the Umingan police is confident that all the other members of her guns-for-hire gang will soon be identified and arrested.

For this, the police called on relatives of all victims to come out in the open and testify against the woman gang leader and her groups. (PNA)