"Guam airport officers arrested"

Monday, March 17, 2003

Former Airport Police chief Pete Daga nabbed in connection to Airport sting
by Sabrina Salas
KUAM News - Guam


As an update to the story KUAM News broke regarding mass arrests of
employees at the Guam International Airport, KUAM News has learned that
former Airport Police chief Pete Daga has been arrested will be brought to
the Hagatna Precinct. He will be booked and confined.

According to Guam Police Department Spokesperson Kim Santos, Daga has
officially been charged with theft of property, criminal facilitation, and
official misconduct. We can confirm the charges that were filed against Daga
were in relation to the investigation regarding the stolen Rolex watches.

As we reported earlier, the investigation was not forwarded to the
appropriate authorities (namely GPD), and instead the investigating officer
was told to refrain to passing it along to GPD and forwarded to the Airport’
s Investigation Section, which was a non-existent entity.

We’ve also learned that regarding the K-9 dog, “Rex” was found by officers,
which is valued at more than $11,000, at Daga’s home.

Airport officers arrested
By Brenda Sommer
Pacific Daily News


Guam police arrested several airport policemen yesterday on charges having
to do with stolen Rolex watches, tampering with firearms and a missing bomb
dog.

According to Guam Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Santos, the police
department was told by an unidentified airport employee about a
theft-of-property case "mishandled by airport police."

On July 11, 2001, Japan Airlines made a theft-of-property complaint to the
Antonio B. Won Pat Guam International Airport police department because six
Rolex watches that came in as cargo for Duty Free Shoppers were missing,
Santos said.

Officer's son

"Through their investigation, (airport police) found the son of a
high-ranking airport police officer was one of two suspects," Santos said.
"The preliminary officer was told to refrain from forwarding the follow-up
investigation to GPD, and was told to send it to the airport police's
investigative section, which is nonexistent."

As a result of an investigation conducted by GPD's Government Corruption
Task Force, airport police Lt. Carl Vincent Cruz, 36, of Dededo was arrested
on charges of hindering apprehension, obstructing government operations,
criminal facilitation and three counts of official misconduct, and was
booked and confined, Santos said.

Guns

GPD corruption task force members, "through their ongoing investigation at
the Guam International Airport," inventoried the airport police armory and
property sections, and found evidence -- a .380 Lorcin pistol and a
.25-caliber pistol -- had been tampered with in the armory.

Also, a Winchester 30-30 rifle, reported stolen in 1995 and confiscated by
airport police from an arrestee in 1996, was removed from the airport police
property room and found in the armory.

Arrested in that matter was airport police Officer 1 Dean Dereck Delgado,
35, of Dededo.

He was charged by police with theft of property, evidence tampering, guilt
established by complicity, criminal facilitation, unlawful transfer of a
firearm, four counts of official misconduct and two counts of possession of
a firearm without a firearms ID, and was booked and confined, Santos said.

Bomb dog

Santos said a K-9 bomb dog named Rex was donated to airport police in 2002
by the Global Academy in San Antonio, Texas, a dog-training facility.

Rex was supposed to be trained by the airport's canine unit, and monthly
training progress reports were to be forwarded to Global Academy, Santos
said.

"Investigations found there has been no training," Santos said, noting that
the dog -- worth $11,000 -- was last seen in January at the kennel at
Andersen Air Force Base.

Guam police arrested airport police canine handler Officer 1 Billy S.
Raphael, 32, of Yigo, but Santos could not say on what charges.

After Raphael's arrest, Rex was recovered at the house of airport police Lt.
Pete C. Daga, 42, of Agafa Gumas, the former chief of the airport police.

"He's fine, he's healthy," Santos said of the bomb dog. "Rex has been
returned to the custody of the airport police."

Daga was then arrested, but Santos could not say on what charges.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dc/dcboard.php

*****************************************