A man who is al­leged to have been tar­get­ing el­der­ly res­i­dents of a Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) hous­ing scheme, is one of nine men held un­der a pre­ven­ta­tive de­ten­tion or­der (PDO).

Ack­el Fran­cis, al­so known as “Ack­el Patrick” of Build­ing No 204, Sev­enth Av­enue, Orop­une Gar­dens, Pi­ar­co, is de­scribed by au­thor­i­ties as a foot sol­dier in a gang op­er­at­ing in the area.

“The ICG has ac­cess to a cache of firearms and am­mu­ni­tion. The de­tainee, who is a foot sol­dier for the ICG and oth­ers, is en­gaged in drug traf­fick­ing, mon­ey laun­der­ing, tip­ping off, vi­o­lent at­tacks on res­i­dents, with a fo­cus on el­der­ly res­i­dents and un­law­ful oc­cu­pa­tion of HDC units. The de­tainee and oth­ers in­tend to im­mi­nent­ly es­ca­late these ac­tiv­i­ties to ex­pand gang ter­ri­to­ry and are tar­get­ing res­i­dents for fur­ther vi­o­lent at­tacks,” the PDO said.