Ilocos anti-drug cop arrested for alleged extortion

July 24, 2020

A member of the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (REDU) of the Ilocos regional police was arrested by the Philippine National Police- Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) for alleged extortion on Thursday.

Police Brigadier Ronald Lee, IMEG director, said the entrapment operation was conducted against Police Master Sergeant Aurelio Pine after they received a complaint from a hardware owner that he was  included in the region’s wanted list.

The operation was done after a series of validation of complaints and intelligence reports regarding extortion activities of Pine.

Pine was arrested at the hardware store at Barangay Pugaro in Balungao, Pangasinan around 6:15 am.

Lee said Pine promised the owner that his name could be removed in exchange for P100,000.

“It turned out that the suspect was just using the scheme to collect money from unsuspecting civilians in the region. We are now investigating if he had also victimized several other people in the region before he was arrested," he said.

Recovered from Pine were his PNP-issued firearm and another pistol with an expired license.

Pine was ordered disarmed and charged criminally and administratively by Brig. General Rodolfo Azurin, the Ilocos regional police director.

He is  under the custody of the PNP-IMEG. Ella Dionisio/DMS