4 nabbed for gunrunning, drug pushing

MANILA, Philippines - A suspected gunrunner and drug pusher and his three alleged accomplices were arrested during a sting in Taytay, Rizal Thursday.

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) operatives were able to buy two pistols for P34,000 from Ricky Cruz, 45; his brother, Joseph, 52; Ejercito Magno, 45, and Jerome Sarabillo, 34, at the parking lot of a fastfood restaurant along Rizal Avenue in Barangay San Juan at around 4:30 p.m.

The transaction was consummated in a parked car while an undercover police officer posed as a driver, said Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar, QCPD director.

Police officers also confiscated a plastic bag said to contain 200 grams of shabu, with an estimated street value of P600,000; a weighing scale; cash and mobile phones from the suspects.

Undercover police officers had arranged to buy an M16 rifle from Ricky but he was not able to produce it, Eleazar said.

A .45 caliber Colt 1911 pistol, a .22 caliber LR Arnes Unique France pistol, magazines, bullets and marked money were recovered from Ricky himself.

Magno and Sarabillo, who are on the Tanay police’s drug watchlist, were out on bail on drug charges.

The sting, coordinated with the Tanay police, is an offshoot of the arrest of suspected gunrunner Edwin de Leon and five others at his home in Barangay Bagbag, Quezon City on Feb. 15.

Ricky was tagged as De Leon’s supplier. A .45 caliber pistol and a .38 caliber revolver, as well as sachets of shabu, were confiscated from De Leon.