Cops nab ‘big fish’ with shabu, guns at checkpoint

By LITO RULONA
Correspondent

POLICE yesterday pressed charges against a man and two women they arrested at a checkpoint in Bulua on Tuesday night. The van the suspects were using yielded suspected shabu and high-powered firearms.

The local police’s City Public Safety Battalion (CPSB) said the arrest was unplanned but it turned out be be a big catch. CPSB leader Supt. Roy Magsalay said the suspects––Ariel Casia, 39, and Mariel Maruhom, 25, of Barangay Barra, Opol, Misamis Oriental, and Nathalie Fuentes, 23, of Barangay Bulua, this city––were arrested at a checkpoint in Macapagal Boulevard in Zone 8, Barangay Bulua.

Magsalay said the suspects’ grey van yielded two.45 caliber pistols, an assault M- rifle, a caliber .38 revolver, a rifle grenade, KG9 magazine, M-16 magazine, combat knives, and five large sachets of suspected shabu with paraphernalia. He said there was no document shown for the firearms, and Casia allegedly tried to convince the CPSB members that he was a policeman when they asked him about the protruding firearm parts.

“We did not know what was inside the vehicle when we flagged him down. He was uneasy and so we checked and found the firearms. He then showed a badge and an ID which were fake,” Magsalay said.

Casia, according to Magsalay, had an arrest warrant for drug trafficking, and illegal possession of firearms, and had been slapped with illegal gambling and other cases that have been dismissed in court.

“He is positive in the distribution of illegal drugs. He admitted during interrogation that some of the firearms were payments for illegal drugs. Others were for his protection,” Magsalay said.

The suspects were charged with illegal possession of firearms and dangerous drugs, and usurpation of authority. Police said he had police and military uniforms in the vehicle.