ZAMBOANGA CITY: Four local police officers, one of them a lieutenant, who are believed to be involved in a daring robbery of a wealthy businessman, were captured separately here over the weekend.

The suspects were part of a group of seven men, all wearing bonnets, who raided the house of a trader in Tetuan village on November 14 and held the horrified civilians at gunpoint before carting away two safety vaults and other valuable items.

The vaults were eventually recovered by policemen the next day but were already empty.

Three of the suspects were captured on Saturday at a beach resort in Cabaluay village while the fourth was arrested in the village of Putik.

The authorities did not reveal the names of the suspects who are members of the Police Regional Headquarters Support Unit, the Zamboanga City 2nd Mobile Force Company, Zamboanga City Police Patrol Unit and Police Station 7. One of them was also allegedly possessing shabu.

Col. Alexander Lorenzo, chief of the Zamboanga City Police Office, confirmed the arrest of the officers, saying the capture came following an intense and massive manhunt operation.

Lorenzo said they tracked down the escaped vehicle of the suspects and their routes by following video recordings from public surveillance cameras in the villages.

The vehicle turned out to be rented by the suspects from a private rent-a-car company which provided the police with the GPS locations of the vehicle.

Col. Elmer Solon told local radio station Brigada that they were able to track down the suspects because the car they (suspects) had rented has a global positioning system (GPS). The rent-a-car owner, he said, provided the police who rented the car, and the GPS which the police used in the manhunt operation.

“Mabuti at may GPS ‘yung renta-car at nalaman natin kung saan sila pumunta at positively ‘yun ang naging lead natin kung sino ‘yung nag-renta (It’s good the rent-a-car has GPS and we are able to determine where the suspects went and that was the lead for our policemen to know who rented the car),” said Solon.

Lorenzo said the others, who were former cops, had surrendered but he did not provide details, saying police investigation is going on. It was unknown how much money was taken from the vaults or whether this was recovered by the police or not.

He lauded all those involved in the operations for the capture of the suspects and warned rogue cops, saying they will be dealt with strongly by the police.