Two sons of retired general Carlos Garcia were arrested in San Francisco, following an indictment by a federal grand jury, United States Attorney Joseph Russoniello said yesterday.

The indictment, which was issued in December, charged Juan Paulo Depakakibo Garcia of Pontiac, Michigan, and Ian Carl Depakakibo Garcia of Las Vegas, Nevada, with one count of conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling, and one count of bulk cash smuggling. The grand jury also charged Juan Paulo with failing to file a report on the import of monetary instruments and making a false statement to a government agency, Russoniello said in a press statement.

Juan Paulo was arrested in Pontiac, and Ian Carl was arrested in Las Vegas. Both will be held in San Francisco to answer to the charges, Russoniello said.

They are sons of Carlos Garcia, former military comptroller who recently was found guilty in the Philippines of perjury for misdeclaration of his assets and liabilities in 2000.

Garcia, his wife and three sons, including Juan Paulo and Ian Carl, are also facing plunder charges in the Philippines for allegedly amassing P303.27 million of ill-gotten wealth during the general?s active military service.

According to the indictment, in December 2003, the Garcia brothers smuggled $100,000 into the United States from Manila, concealed on their persons and in their luggage, and failed to declare the importation of money.

The maximum statutory penalty for each of the four counts in the indictment? conspiracy to commit bulk cash smuggling, bulk cash smuggling, failure to report the importation of monetary instruments and false statements to a government agency?are five years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. The penalty for failure to declare the importation of monetary instruments increases to 10 years in prison if a defendant is convicted of this charge in addition to one of the other three charges in the indictment.

An indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, the Garcias must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, the US attorney said.