RODRIGUEZ, Rizal — A police crackdown on troublesome street gangs in this municipality sent four teenagers to juvenile detention over the weekend after they yielded deadly weapons, including an improvised shotgun.

Police, who identified the suspects only as aliases “Dobert,” 17; “Deric,” 16; “Dobby,” 15; and “Donathan,” 15, turned them over to the local office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The group was accosted and frisked by police and village watchmen around 10 p.m. Sunday in the area of Jovel-3 Annex, in Barangay San Isidro, when a lead pipe fashioned into a “sumpak” (improvised shotgun) was found in their possession.

Had normal rules applied, the minors would have been charged not only with possession of deadly weapons but violation of the Commission on Election (Comelec) gun ban.