With retired NZ cop’s help, lawmen bust gunrunning ring

ANGELES CITY—Police busted a gang selling guns to foreigners at the tourist district here, thanks to a 55-year-old retired New Zealand policeman who helped entrap the gunrunning group.

A team from the Pampanga Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) arrested a suspected gunrunner, Anjo Mark Quillopas, 29, while transacting with a tipster during a Feb. 23 operation.

The foreigner, whose identity has been kept confidential for his safety, was offered a gun by Quillopas on Jan. 30 at a coffee shop outside the Clark Freeport in Barangay Malabanias here.

The foreigner lost no time in reporting the case to the CIDG, which mounted the entrapment operation.

According to the foreigner, Quillopas tried to sell him a broom, a bolo knife and a samurai blade, but he jokingly replied that “those weapons were of no use because they cannot beat a gun.”

Quillopas then offered to sell the foreigner a .38 cal. revolver for P10,000, and had asked for a P500 down payment and the foreigner’s contact information to process the transaction.

The suspect texted the foreigner three weeks later to amend the transaction, saying the available weapon was a .45 cal. pistol worth P35,000.

The foreigner, who was then in Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year, scheduled the sale on Feb. 23, which he coordinated with the CIDG team.

During the meeting, the suspect tried to lure the foreigner to an apartment to retrieve the weapon but was persuaded instead to bring the gun to a gasoline station.

Quillopas returned there with three men on two motorcycles. Quillopas and one of his accomplices boarded the foreigner’s car to show him the gun, a Cebu-made Shooters S.A.M. Alpha .40 cal. pistol loaded with eight bullets.

As soon as the sale was completed, CIDG operatives arrested Quillopas and three other suspects, Marcos Macasaquit, 49, Nilo Castro, 43, and Raymond de la Cruz, 38.

The Pampanga CIDG also arrested a security guard, Rodolfo Jomadia, who tried to sell a loaded .45 cal. pistol to a foreigner in front of Brettos Deli and Coffee Shop in Malabanias here. The guard tried to sell the pistol for P20,000.

On Nov. 3 last year, CIDG operatives also arrested a salesman in Barangay Dau in nearby Mabalacat City on a charge of selling a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver to a foreigner for P20,000. Jun Malig, Inquirer Central Luzon