Police raided a hotel in Panglao where suspects in the brutal killing of Atty. Manuelita “Mia” Mascarinas-Green were believed to have been holed up at midnight on Friday.

The operatives stormed the Alona Embrace Hotel in Barangay Tawala which is being run by Lloyd Lancer Gonzaga who was tagged by police as the alleged mastermind in Green’s murder.

Policemen of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) were reportedly monitoring the hotel since Thursday but the suspects were able to escape before the operatives implemented the search warrant.

In two hotel rooms believed to have been occupied by the suspects, the composite team of the PIB, Tagbilaran police, Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSC) and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) recovered two grenades, a .45 pistol, a .38 revolver and a two packs of shabu.

However, authorities indicated that Gonzaga was not in the hotel even prior to the raid and that the seized firearms were likely not the murder weapons.

Gonzaga was tagged as the suspect who orchestrated the killing of Green after witnesses positively identified known associates of the hotel operator as the gunmen.

According to a source, Green has been handling a case against the owner of the hotel.

READ: Lawyer gunned down in front of kids in Tagbilaran

Meanwhile, Tagbilaran City police chief Supt. Nicomedes Olaivar identified one of the gunmen in the murder of Green in Tagbilaran City on Wednesday as Romarico Benigian.

In October last year, Gonzaga and Benigian were allegedly caught in possession of high-caliber firearms, ammunition and drugs in a raid conducted by CIDG and PPSC operatives in Panglao.

READ: High-caliber guns, ammo, ‘shabu’ seized in Panglao raid

The policemen seized from Gonzaga two .45 caliber pistols with four magazines and 25 live bullets, a .357 caliber revolver, a packet of suspected shabu and drug paraphernalia.

They also confiscated a 12-gauge shotgun, 5 live shotgun shells and a fully loaded .38 revolver from Benegian.(Weli Maestrado)