Criminology Student Arrested for Robbery-Extortion.

Philippines: A Masteral student in Criminology was arrested in a police entrapment operation after he allegedly threatened to kill the whole family of a local businesswoman if he was not paid an amount of P1.5-million in exchange for their lives.
This reportedly resulted after the suspect allegedly broke into the house of the family and robbed them of about P245,000 in assorted jewelry, cameras, wristwatches and a complete computer unit about two weeks earlier.
Supt. Ernesto Gaab, officer-in-charge of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), identified the suspect in the two cases as Carlito Naces Ganagana Jr., 27, married, a Masters in Criminology student in a local university, who resides at 132 Poblacion, Botogue Laoac, Pangasinan.
Although the suspect claimed to be a resident of Balsigan, police found out later that he does not really go home there.
His reported victim in both incidents was only named as Deborah Cainto, a resident of Ferguson Road. (Hmm..was he trying to give criminology a bad name.)
Initial investigation of the robbery case disclosed that Ganagana allegedly entered the house of Cainto at around 3p.m. of August 25 and carted away assorted pieces of jewelry, a computer central processing unit with monitor and keyboard, one Olympus camera, a Canon A-1 camera with accessories, a General Electric speakerphone, and a number of wristwatches with Omega, Fendi, Seiko, Swatch and other brands. These all reportedly amount to approximately P245,000.
"On September 8, the victim received a threatening texted message on her cellular telephone saying that physical harm will come to her family unless she will cough up P1-million in exchange for their security," Gaab said.
"However, when Mrs. Cainto refused to give in to the demand, a follow-up call from the same texter was received and the demand was raised to P1.5-million. She lost no time and reported her predicament to our office."
Two police officers were detailed to the victim's family for security assistance even as BCPO personnel also formulated a plan to conduct an entrapment operation if and when a pay-off would be made.
After a series of negotiations were made the next three days between the victim and the extortion-robbery suspect, who was still unidentified at that time, they finally agreed to schedule the delivery of the bargained amount of P850,000 inside one of the numerous bus terminals along Gov. Pack Road on September 11.
At around 10 p.m. of that day, an undercover policewoman of the BCPO Women & Children Concerns Section dropped off the package of marked 'boodle' money inside a garbage bin situated inside the Amianan Bus terminal, where plainclothes operatives of the BCPO Intelligence and Investigation Branch and BCPO Station 3 strategically posted themselves earlier.
As agreed, the suspect showed up and took the marked money from inside the said garbage bin, signaling the posted police operatives to swoop down and arrest him.
After Ganagana's arrest, the marked money and a Nokia 3315 cellphone, which was used in the three-day negotiation was recovered from his possession.
Ganagana was detained later at the Baguio City Jail on charges of alleged robbery with intimidation and robbery-extortion.
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.(From Sun Star Network Online - Philippines)