St. Thomas, USVI - On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at approximately 5:00 p.m., members of the Virgin Islands Police Department Operation Rewind Task Force were conducting traffic enforcement on St. Peter Mountain Road (Four Corners) when they observed a red SUV towing a boat failing to stop at the intersection’s stop sign.

Officers stopped the vehicle which had three occupants. Upon making contact with the driver, officers immediately recognized him from a previous traffic stop where he was not in possession of a driver’s license.

David Medina Valdivieso

Officers at that time inquired if the driver had a driver’s license again, but upon the officers’ request, everyone in the vehicle began to display unusual nervous behavior and kept looking at a black bag on the rear seat of the vehicle. It was also observed that the occupants of the vehicle made small attempts to reach for the black bag.

Jhosnel Garcia

For officer safety, officers made a request to look in the black bag, which was granted to them by the driver of the vehicle, however, the driver then tried to grab the bag out of the officers hands but failed.

Andres Guerrero

Upon inspection of the bag, a tan colored handgun equipped with what’s called a chip (it makes the weapon operate fully automatic like that of a machine gun) was discovered in the bag.

David Medina Valdivieso, age 26, Jhosnel Garcia, age 27, and Andres Guerrero, age 48, were taken into custody and read their rights by officers on the scene. They were charged with Constructive Possession of Unlicensed Firearm and booked. Bail was set at $100,000.00. Unable to post bail they were all remanded to the Bureau of Corrections.

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All individuals listed as arrested or charged with a crime in this press release are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.