Cebu provincial police inventory the firearms and ammunition recovered from the house of confessed drug lord Franz Sabalones following an early morning search on Friday, March 1, 2019, in a unit he shared with his common-law wife Winefreda Misa in Modena Subdivision of Barangay Tunghaan, Minglanilla, Cebu. Looking on is Minglanilla Mayor Elanito Peña (second to the right). |CDND Photo by Benjie Talisic
MINGLANILLA, Cebu – Police recovered high-powered firearms and an explosive in the house occupied by the common-law-wife and young children of drug lord Franz Sabalones in Minglanilla, a town 19.2 kilometers south of Cebu City.
The firearms – a KG-9 semi-automatic pistol, an M4 carbine and a .45 caliber pistol – were found by the Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO) during a search in the Sabalones house in Modena Subdivision, Sitio Estaca, Barangay Tunghaan of the town past 8 a.m. on Friday, March 1, 2019.
Also recovered during the search was a homemade grenade. The firearms and explosive were all found inside the room of Winefreda Misa, 33, whom the police said is the common-law wife of Sabalones.
The weapons were found as police swept through the house, in search of the .45 caliber pistol mentioned in the search warrant.
The CPPO operatives from the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) and the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU) were armed with a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 60 (Barili) Executive Judge Leopoldo Cañete.
Sabalones was not around during the search. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Read more: Police raid house of confessed drug lord Franz Sabalones in Minglanilla, Cebu
Mayor Elanito Peña, who arrived at the area soon after the search began, said he rushed to Modena Subdivision after he was informed about the raid by the village chief of Tunghaan.
He said the raid took him by surprise because he did not know that Sabalones owns a house in his town.
The mayor said he will be closely coordinate with the Minglanilla police as he is concerned that a drug group linked to the Sabalones group might have started operating in his town./elb