Arrested Arnold Padilla (left) claims the grenades were planted by the police. ALFONSO PADILLA Arnold Padilla, the man who together with his wife and bodyguards assaulted traffic enforcers in Makati City last 13 of August, was arrested yesterday for illegal possession of grenades and firearms.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Guillermo Eleazar led the serving of a search warrant on Padilla’s residence at 18 San Antonio, Magallanes Village. Makati City Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Elmo Alameda issued the warrant.

Padilla and his wife Grachelle Razon and bodyguards figured in a video gone viral showing them hitting the traffic enforcers who flagged down their black car and back-up white sports utility vehicle.

The video showed the enforcers already let go of the suspects upon recognizing them, but Razon, Padilla and the bodyguards went out of their vehicles and started assaulting the men in uniform in front of Gate 1 of Magallanes Village.

During his arrest, Padilla was taken out of his house on an ambulance after his blood pressure allegedly shot up. It was not the first time that he got entangled with the law.

In 2015, a village security guard complained Padilla berated and spat at him when he responded to a commotion that involved the former’s group. Several residents of Magallanes Village had also filed complaints against the businessman.

Padilla had been tagged a suspect in the killing of his sister, Yvonne Chua, who died when a “gift” she opened exploded. The police said the box contained five grenades. Her six-year-old child was wounded in the incident.

Almeda issued the search warrant upon reports that Padilla, despite being stripped of the right to own firearms in 2015 for allegedly faking his drug test result, was still armed in going around threatening people.

But Padilla claimed all his guns whose licenses had been revoked had been surrendered. He added that the firearms found in his house were all licensed but to whom he did not state. He said the grenades found were planted by the police, a claim which Eleazar denied.

Eleazar said the NCRPO operation had nothing to do with the charges Padilla, Razon and their bodyguards are facing for assaulting the enforcers. The police were already conducting a case build-up against Padilla even before the video went viral.