POGO kingpin falls in Laguna – PAOCC

After an extensive eight-month surveillance, a Chinese national tagged as the kingpin or "boss of bosses" of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) in the country was arrested in Biñan, Laguna Thursday night along with 12 other Chinese and their Filipino cohorts.

-  EMMANUEL TUPAS

Lyu Dong, also known as Lin Xunhan, was arrested by operatives of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Bureau of Immigration (BI), Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police in Las Villas de Manila, a subdivision in Barangay Canlalay in Biñan at around 8:30 p.m. Lyu had just alighted from his vehicle when heavily armed law enforcement authorities, brandishing a BI mission order, apprehended him.

Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz, PAOCC's executive director, identified the 12 other Chinese nationals arrested as Qui Xingjin, Zhang Jie, Zhang Haifeng, Lin Haiping, Lin Linxing, Wang Mingyang, Yuan Weijiang, Liu Changhuang, Cheng Hengfang, Su Zhonglin, Liu Changwu and Lin Xunqin.

Also rounded up were nine Filipinos serving as bodyguards and drivers of Lyu. Several 9mm handguns were seized from the suspects.

Cruz said Lyu, who also used the aliases Bogo, Boga, Xia Long, Apao, Pahao and Hao Hao, is a key figure in the landscape of organized crime in the Philippines.

“Yung Hao Hao kasi ibig sabihin niyan boss of bosses. So eto ‘yung puwede nating sabihing kingpin ng mga POGO dito sa atin (Hao Hao means boss of bosses. So we can say he’s the kingpin of POGO here),” Cruz said in an interview over GMA News yesterday.