2 caught selling fake gold bar

Two persons were arrested for allegedly selling a fake gold bar to a former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in an entrapment operation at a mall in Malate, Manila Thursday.

Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr., chief of the Manila Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU), identified the suspects as Danilo Santos, 45, and Rudy Ortega, 38, both of Davao City. Recovered from the suspects were a gold-colored bar with markings “AU Sumatra SN 38224773” and two bundles of fake money topped with genuine P500 bills.  

Chief Inspector Romeo Alerta, Balayan, Batangas police chief, together with his provincemate Teodoro de Castro, sought the assistance of the Manila police after the latter sensed that he was being conned into buying a fake gold bar.

De Castro, 44, who is engaged in the buy and sell of precious metals, told police he was introduced to two men based in Davao City offering to sell him gold bars for P4 million each. However, he sensed an anomaly when he was able to lower the price for P350,000. He said the suspects agreed to meet him at the parking lot of a shopping mall in Malate, Manila.

At the police headquarters, the two suspects said they were only ordered to bring the fake gold bar to Manila but refused to name their cohort.

Arevalo said the metal will be submitted to the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences for verification. He is also calling on victims of gold bar-swindling to come to the MPD headquarters to identify the suspects. – Nestor Etolle