Police arrested four more minors, bringing to nine the number of youngsters hauled off in a week after being linked to a notorious robbery gang responsible for a series of motorcycles thefts in the northern portion of Metro Manila.

Police said the minors were preying on parked motorbikes specifically in the cities of Caloocan and Valenzuela.

Reports reaching the office of Northern Police District (NPD) director Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao Jr. said the minors are being used by syndicates with links to robberries and illegal drugs.

Pagdilao said the robbery syndicate was traced by operatives in their hideouts in Valenzuela and Caloocan cities during raids by combined teams from the NPD and the two local police stations.

Police confiscated during the raid some stolen motorcycles as well as master keys which they used in stealing unattended parked motorbikes, the operatives said.

Pagdilao said, in Valenzuela, the operation rounded up suspects identified as Johnny, Peter, John and Tony, all 17 years old; Tom, 16; Sam, 15; and Jerry, 14.

In the Caloocan raid, Peter and Anthony, both 17, were arrested based on a complaint filed by a certain Manuel Phua who said the two forcibly took from him his Kawasaki motorcycle in front of his house.

This came as the NPD chief directed the four police station chiefs to implement aggressive anti-crime operations against all forms of lawlessness in their turfs.