SAN FERNANDO, Philippines -- Police shot and killed the country's most wanted kidnapper Wednesday during a raid on one of his syndicate's safehouses, authorities said.
President Fidel Ramos said the killing of Alfredo de Leon, 38, suspected leader of the Red Scorpion Gang, 'ended the reign of one of society's most notorious criminals.' He commended the police for a 'job very well done.'
De Leon's death was seen as a major victory in Ramos' campaign to curb crime. Civic groups Tuesday denounced the government for being inept in halting a rash of kidnappings and other violent crimes.
Maj. Cesar Mancao said police raided the safehouse in Bulacan province some 30 miles north of Manila after receiving reports de Leon would be visiting his common law wife there.
He said authorities tried to arrest de Leon during the raid but the reputed gang leader pulled a .45 caliber handgun and began shooting.
'He tried to shoot it out, but we outgunned him,' said Mancao, a decorated police officer who fired the three fatal shots at de Leon.
Authorities recovered a motorcycle, a cellular phone, cash and the handgun from the de Leon, the country's most wanted kidnapper with a $134,000 reward on his head.
Police also arrested a teenage boy, Christopher Reyes, believed to be de Leon's runner and lookout.
Col. Panfilo Lacson, chief of an elite anti-crime task force, said de Leon's group was behind the abduction of U.S. oil executive Michael Barnes in January 1992 and several other prominent businessmen.
The reputed gang leader was believed to have amassed $4 million from 24 major kidnappings and bank robberies staged by his group since 1989, Lacson said.
Officials have said the Red Scorpion group is a breakaway faction of a communist death squad operating in the capital and the surrounding area.
The government has vowed to stamp out kidnapping, which has become a lucrative cottage industry in the Philippines and a major deterrent to foreign investment.
Barnes, vice president of a Philippine subsidiary of American energy firm Unocal, was held for 61 days before being rescued during a police raid in which 13 suspected Red Scorpion members were killed.
Later investigations revealed evidence that several of the killed gang members may have been executed by raiding officers.
