At least nine people have formed a group and resorted to kidnapping-for-ransom and gun-running activities allegedly to finance their medical expenses for sex change, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group disclosed on Tuesday, Oct. 4.
Lee identified the suspects as Jun Francis Villa, Lawrenz Lingo, Jhonas Belonio, Bernardo Torres and Mark Joseph. The group reportedly demanded ransom from the victim’s family and was able to collect P308,000 in five different transactions on an e-wallet app. “They were able to collect a total ransom money amounting to P4.2M which will be used for their sex reassignment surgery or ‘sex change’,” he added.This resulted in various entrapment operations that resulted in the arrest of Villa and Lingo on Sept. 27; Belonio on Sept. 23; and, Torres and Pelonio on Sept. 29.