Two of the four suspects arrested in a checkpoint are seen inside the San Fernando police detention cell. (CDN PHOTO/FERDINAND EDRALIN)
Three men and a pregnant woman were caught with guns and drug paraphernalia on board a multicab at a checkpoint in San Fernando town, southern Cebu at 2:30 a.m. on Monday.
Chief Insp. Richard Gadingan of the San Fernando Police said Mark Genterone, Leonard Joseph Alicaway, Leecille Vergara, and Joan Blanco, who is three months pregnant, will be charged today for illegal possession of firearms and drug paraphernalia.
Genterone, 30, of Maigang, Barili town was driving the privately owned passenger-type multicab.
His passengers were his live-in partner Blanco, 34, of Poblacion, Barili town; Alicaway of Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City; and Vergara, 20, of Sta. Ana, Barili town.
Gadingan said another man, identified by Blanco as Luke, managed to get off the vehicle and escape before the police officers checked the bags of the suspects and discovered the guns and drug paraphernalia.
Gadingan said the suspects were headed to Cebu City from Barili town when they were flagged down at a checkpoint in San Fernando town in southern Cebu.
Police asked them to open their bags when they started acting suspiciously.
“Walay information nga armed sila. Unusual lang ang ilang lihok (There was no information that they were armed. They were just acting suspiciously though),” Gadingan said.
Recovered from them were one Ingram submachine gun with a silencer, one .45 pistol, and one 9 mm pistol; assorted drug paraphernalia, one digital weighing scale, two lighters, and a bag containing P20,440 cash that police suspected to be proceeds from a drug deal.
Blanco denied they had anything to do with the firearms and drug paraphernalia.
She said they were on their way to Cebu City from their hometown in Barili when they allowed Alicaway and Vergara to get on board their vehicle.
“We allowed them to hitch a ride with us because we know them to be residents of Barili town. We didn’t believe that they can do this to us,” she said in Cebuano.