Daly City Man Caught Smuggling Guns To The Philippines

SAN JOSE, CA — A Daly City man has been sentenced in federal court in San Jose to one year and eight months in prison for smuggling guns to the Philippines without a license in 2015.

Elmer Cuares pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in June to one count of smuggling goods from the United States. Koh sentenced him on Wednesday.

According to prosecution filings, Cuares included the guns in a shipment in which he was sending two trucks he had bought from a San Jose company to the Philippines.

Cuares asked the shipping company whether he could add some personal items to the shipment, including a television, a motorcycle and some boxes.

After the shipment arrived, Philippine authorities searched the boxes and found three handguns and one assault rifle, which had been disassembled. Koh also ordered Cuares to serve one year on supervised release after completing his prison term.

He is due to surrender to begin serving his sentence on Nov. 28.

— By Bay City News Service /Image via Shutterstock