AGENTS of the Philippine National Police Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) on Monday afternoon arrested two members of a gun trafficking syndicate in Metro Manila following a buy-bust operation in Sta. Cruz, Manila, PNP-IMEG director, newly-promoted Brigadier General Ronald O. Lee said yesterday.
“We are still conducting follow-up investigation on an active police personnel who has been tagged as the alleged protector of the firearm traffickers and also the source of the illegal guns they have been selling,” the official said in a report to PNP chief, General Archie Francisco F. Gamboa.
The name of the rogue policeman was temporarily withheld pending investigation aimed at filing criminal and administrative charges against him.
Lee said the sting inside a convenience store in Tayuman Street corner Ipil Street in Sta. Cruz around 4:40 p.m. Monday resulted in the arrest of Reynaldo David,30; and Juanito Peleo,52, both residents of Katamanan Street in Barangay 232 in Tondo, Manila.
Recovered from the duo were one Uzi 9mm machine pistol fitted with a silencer and with a magazine containing two bullets, a 9mm revolver with three live ammunition and the marked money paid to them by an undercover officer.
Lee said officers from the PNP Intelligence Group headed by Brig. Gen. Jesus D. Cambay Jr. joined them in the entrapment operation following weeks of surveillance triggered by an intelligence packet provided by the PNP-IG.
The suspects were previously monitored to be engaged in the trafficking of illegal weapons in different parts of Manila and Caloocan cities.
Both suspects are now being held at the PNP-IMEG lock-up facility in Camp Crame facing charges for violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulations Act of 2013.
