Fil-Am NY cop accused of gun smuggling released

CHICAGO – A Filipino-American officer of the New York police force, accused along with his brother, of illegally exporting arms to the Philippines, has been ordered released from state detention after posting $300,000 bail bond.

But Chief Magistrate Judge Steven Gold of the US District court of the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn ordered house arrest for New York police officer Rex Maralit, 44, last Sept. 12. Gold also ordered an electronic monitoring device clamped on Maralit’s ankle.

There was no word yet on Rex’s elder brother, Wilfredo Maralit, 48, a US Customs and Border Protection Officer assigned at the Los Angeles International Airport in California, who was slated to be “removed to the Eastern District of the US District Court in Brooklyn, New York” after his arrest in California last Sept. 5. Rex was arrested on the same day. Another brother, Ariel, 43, is in the Philippines.

Specifically, the Maralit brothers have been charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act for exporting weapons to the Philippines without license from the US State Department.

The court will confiscate the bond, secured using Maralit’s family property, if he fails to show up at any of his scheduled court appearances. No dates yet have been set for the hearings on the brothers’ case.

United States Attorney Loretta Lynch had earlier tried to block the granting of bail bond to Maralit saying he “has significant ties to a foreign country.” She said a close relative and “co-conspirator” lives in the Philippines.

“In addition, travel records indicate the defendant recently traveled to and from the Philippines. Moreover, it appears that he may have had ties to a government agency in the Philippines, and clearly possesses professional skills that would make capture difficult should he choose to flee,” Lynch said. Prosecutors said they had information that Maralit had been a government intelligence personnel in the Philippines from 1991 to 1992.

In opposing the grant of bail to Maralit, US government lawyers also argued that “international gun trafficking is an extremely serious crime, particularly when committed by a public servant with law enforcement authority.”

Maralit did not enter a plea when arraigned last Sept. 6, said Robert Nardoza, spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. He was represented by counsel Michelle Gelernt while Assistant US Attorney Seth DuCharme stood for the US government.

Prosecutors said Maralit had repeatedly supplied assault rifles, sniper rifles and semi-automatic weapons to “co-conspirators” in the Philippines when he was still New York City Police officer. Maralit may face 20 years in prison if found guilty of violating the Arms Export Control Act. But if found guilty only of conspiring to illegally ship firearms, the penalty may be lighter or five-year imprisonment.

Maralit had reportedly accumulated a cache of dangerous weapons and munitions in unsafe condition in his own house where children also live. His “unsafe handling of firearms clearly poses a grave threat to the community, both within the United States and abroad,” prosecutors said.

Evidence against the accused included emails, photographs, shipping records, and search warrant results, among others.

US authorities are coordinating with Philippine authorities for the arrest of Ariel, accused of receiving the gun shipments labeled as “television” and placed in balikbayan boxes coursed through Five Star RP Sea Cargo Inc. based in New Jersey.

In Manila, Bureau of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service director Fernandino Tuason is requesting the US Department of Homeland Security for copies of shipping documents used by the Maralit brothers in illegally sending high-powered firearms to the Philippines since 2009.

“We have already communicated with their Homeland Security and they would be giving us shipping documents so we would get more information about this modus operandi,” Tuason said.  – With Evelyn Macairan