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POLICE in Hong Kong are investigating the territory's role in a drug smuggling and kidnap operation allegedly involving two senior Philippine officials.

  The gang used the territory as a centre of its operations and for at least one ransom drop.

  The two Filipinos, both high-ranking officers who had the job of stopping drug smuggling and the recent wave of kidnappings in the Philippines, have been linked to a number of Hong Kong triads by the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC).

  Last week the PACC, headed by Philippine Vice-President Joseph Estrada, submitted papers to the Ombudsman to file charges against Brigadier-General Dictador Alqueza and Colonel Reynaldo Berroya.

  The two officers are linked to a gang which the PACC believe is being run by suspected drug-lord Manuel ''Jolly Ong'' Tan, who was arrested last month and convicted on corruption charges.

  They also suspect Tan is the Philippine partner of a Hong Kong-based drug syndicate made up of a number of triads, including the Wo Le Wo and the Sun Yee On.

  The charges against Alqueza and Berroya stem from the kidnapping of a Taiwanese businessman, Jack Chou Chung-yih, while he was driving along the South Luzon Expressway outside Manila on May 11.

  Mr Chou was later released unharmed after his father travelled to Hong Kong to pay a 10 million pesos (HK$3 million) ransom to two kidnappers - who the PACC have now linked to Alqueza and Berroya.

  The gang is also believed to be behind the kidnapping of businessmen and the smuggling of large amounts of the drug ''ice'' into the Philippines from Hong Kong.

  Mr Estrada last week told the Sunday Morning Post the two policeman had been charged.

  Although a trial date has yet to be set, Mr Estrada said ''we have enough evidence to pin them down''.

  The vice-president also confirmed the head of the PACC's Task Force had been in Hong Kong to investigate the offences and liaise with the territory's Organised Crime and Triad Group (OCTG).

  Mr Estrada, who had earlier claimed the gang was an ''extension of a Hong Kong triad society'' said other Philippine police officers were involved in the gang.

  Documentation now in the hands of the PACC is believed to include a letter allegedly sent from Tan to Alqueza. It was found by Hong Kong detectives in the waste paper basket of a room used by the Filipino police officer in the Excelsior Hotel in CausewayBay.

  The head of Hong Kong's OCTG, Chief Superintendent T. K. Chan, confirmed the case was under investigation, but would not comment further.

  Philippine consul Benito Valeriano said: ''I cannot comment about the case as the investigation is still pending.

  ''The involvement of the consulate is to authenticate the signatures on statements of persons in Hong Kong.'' 



Top Philippine police held in gang probe