BALTIMORE City police are looking for a Filipino who had accompanied a Filipino couple who had owned a notorious bar in connection with the acquisition of four handguns whose bullets can go through body armor.
The Investigative Voice said that a police report confirmed that police raided the Cheerleaders Bar in Fells Point last August looking for four FN 5.7 millimeter guns, The guns had disappeared since they were purchased by bar owner Vincent Javellana, and his wife Mary Joyce.
The handguns were purchased on May 4 at a Baltimore County gun store and the duo had been accompanied by a Christopher Escario, a Filipino who had entered the United States on a temporary visa and has since returned to the Philippines, the police report said.
Police initially questioned Javellana but he claimed he did not have the handguns. Authorities later learned of a shipment from Baltimore to the Philippines and Javellana later said the guns were in the shipment and that he had not filed the proper paperwork to export firearms.
When police retrieved the shipping container, the guns were gone. Police then conducted a search of the bar and the couple’s Timonium home.
When police arrived they were told by neighbors that the couple moved out in the middle of the night.
The Investigative Voice also said that the Baltimore City Liquor Board permanently revoked the liquor license of Cheerleaders Bar in a unanimous vote last Thursday.
“Never in my experience have I seen such an egregious and flagrant violation of the city’s liquor laws,” Board Chairman Stephan Fogleman said in a telephone interview shortly after the decision by the three-member panel.
“In just under 16 months this bar has been before our board four separate times for numerous violations,” Fogleman said, noting the $4,700 in fines levied against the bar by the board.
“Ultimately they have to pay the price.”
Javellana’s lawyers claimed the bar was under new ownership and that the new management team had invested $50,000 in the facility, Fogleman said.
But Fogleman said the board believed Javellana was still in charge.
