Briton silenced as witness in arms smuggling case?

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Could British ship captain Bruce Anthony Jones have been killed to silence him as a witness in the smuggling of high-powered firearms off Bataan last year?

Police probers are looking into this angle amid reports that the guns found on the ship that Jones, 50, skippered but abandoned off Mariveles town, were for some politicians preparing for the elections last May.

Senior Superintendent Danny Bautista, city police chief, said he is checking reports that Jones had become a state witness in the gun smuggling case.

Jones, who was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men here last Tuesday, was the captain of the 2,400-ton Panama-registered MV Captain Ufuk, where authorities found 54 high-powered firearms.

Thirteen Georgian men and a South African on board the vessel were arrested.

The 54 Israeli-type Galil assault rifles, estimated to be worth P25 million, were to be apparently unloaded at the Mariveles port.

While such assault rifles are usually made in Israel, those found on the ship were made in Indonesia.   

The guns were concealed in four wooden crates kept in the cargo hold. A fifth crate yielded slings, magazines and bayonets.

There were also 15 empty wooden crates, prompting authorities to suspect that more firearms had already been unloaded before the search.    

Documents showed that the ship had come from Turkey and had brief stopovers in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Citing reports, Bautista said Jones was arrested in Olongapo City earlier this year for possession of illegal drugs, but subsequently got out on bail.

After Jones was ascertained to be the captain of the ship bearing the assault rifles, the Department of Justice reportedly made him a state witness in the gun smuggling case, he added.

Bautista said Basham’s wife, Maricel Aramas Jones, 25, together with a friend of the couple, whom he did not identify, confirmed death threats on her husband.

“She said that suspicious men had been casing their house in Olongapo City lately,” Bautista said.

Jones’ wife was wounded in last Tuesday’s attack, but she is now in stable condition in a local hospital.

Bautista said Jones’ killing was not related to the fatal shooting of American James Basham, 63, who was attacked also by motorcycle-riding suspects as he was about to board his motorcycle at the Pampang public market here last Sunday morning. 

Basham was a former policeman from Texas who was also married to a Filipina. 

The triggerman in the Basham killing used a caliber .45 pistol, while an improvised pistol or revolver with an Armalite bullet was used to kill Jones.