Only 1 gun used in recent robberies

There could only be one group involved in the recent spate of robberies in the city and the latest evidence recovered by the police points toward the group of Jemuel Cardoza alias Roldan Villanueva.

Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch (CIIB) Chief Paul Labra told reporters yesterday morning that the ballistics examination done on evidence recovered from various robbery incidents indicates that there was only one gun used.

The Cebu City Police Crime Laboratory and a private laboratory had similar findings that the gun used in all the recent robberies in the city where the perpetrators either accidentally or intentionally fired a gun, was a Colt caliber .45 pistol.

Labra said that with the findings, there is now a great possibility that Cardoza's group is behind all these robberies, especially because he was the one constantly identified by victims through the rogues' gallery.

There have been five big-time heists in the city in just a month, but it was only in the robbery at the Cebu People's Development Cooperative or CEPEDCO where the perpetrators were not identified.

Crime Laboratory experts, however, recovered an empty shell from a cal. .45 pistol at the crime scene because one of the three men who barged into the establishment accidentally fired his gun.

It was also noted that during the East West Bank heist last September 26, where more than P70,000 cash was lost, one of the three men, who barged into the building, also accidentally fired his gun.

One of the robbers also accidentally fired his gun during the heist at the Western Union Money Transfer outlet along Ramos Street last Saturday where P800, 000 cash in local and US currency were taken.

Last October 4, Cardoza was also identified as one of those who robbed a fish vendor of P70,000 cash and a mobile phone worth P20,000 in barangay Capitol Site.

In that incident, Cardoza fired at the victim's multicab, but hit nobody. All the empty shells recovered from these robbery incidents were subjected to ballistics examination. The results showed that they were all fired from only one gun.

Last September 23, Cardoza together with Doroteo Imperial, were tagged as the one who robbed a moneychanger in barangay Mabolo, but no gun was fired in that heist.

Labra said they are requesting for a specimen of Cardoza's fingerprints from the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center so that these could be compared to the latent prints recovered from various crime scenes of robbery incidents. - Ryan P. Borinaga