Quezon City police operatives busted a gun-running syndicate with the arrest of its four alleged members in Taytay, Rizal, Thursday afternoon.
Ricky Cruz alias “Pablo,” 45, his elder brother Joseph Cruz, 52; Ejercito Magno alias “Jeff,” 45; and Jerome Sarabillo, 34, are now detained at the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) headquarters in Camp Karingal after they were collared in a buy-bust operation around 4:30 p.m. in a fast food chain on Rizal Avenue corner Manila East Road in Barangay San Juan, Taytay, Rizal.
Police said their arrest came after six men, who were nabbed last February 15 in Novaliches for possession of loose guns and illegal drugs, pointed to the younger Cruz as their source.
Members of the group, police said, are all residents of Taytay, Rizal, and had been involved in the rampant selling of undocumented guns in Quezon City.
Operatives of QCPD’s special operations unit (DSOU) coordinated with Taytay police to entrap the suspects who agreed to meet them at the parking lot of a fastfood restaurant.
The younger Cruz and his cohorts were arrested when a police poseur-buyer handed the marked P34,000 cash in exchange for .45 and .22-caliber pistols.
Police also confiscated from the four suspects a magazine for .22 pistol with seven bullets; two more .45-caliber pistols, and four cellphones.
They also seized a plastic sachet containing about 200 grams of shabu with an estimated street value of P600,000.
The QCPD is probing the group’s involvement in illegal drugs and other crimes.
Police said they have filed charges for violations of Republic Act 10591 or The Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act); and RA 9165 or The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 against the suspects.
(Vanne Elaine P. Terrazola)
