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[av_heading heading=’Negros drug suspect rats on ‘protectors’’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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Tuesday, january 10, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Several police officials, a barangay captain and two media workers get money from the top drug suspect in Negros Island Region.
Ricky Serenio himself disclosed this in a news conference yesterday at the Police Regional Office 18 (PRO-18) headquarters.
Serenio — No. 1 in the PRO-18’s watch list of drug personalities — was arrested on Sunday in Talisay City, Negros Occidental for grave coercion.
Operatives of the Regional Special Operation Task Group caught Serenio but not after a short struggle. He took his live-in partner hostage when the officers were about to serve him an arrest warrant.
Chief Superintendent Renato Gumban, PRO-18 director, told the press they nabbed a “big fish.”
Serenio was a member of the Beria drug group which operates in Negros Occidental and this capital city, Gumban said.
Around 15 officials from the Bacolod City Police Office and some police noncommissioned officers get protection money from him, Serenio disclosed.
Weekly, they would receive between P30,000 and P100,000 or more, depending on their jurisdiction, he claimed.
Serenio said he was also giving money to a barangay captain in this city, two radio station workers and other people from government agencies.
He said he will indicate his alleged protectors’ names in an affidavit.
His group was supplying this capital city with 15 kilograms of shabu a month, he said, adding that Barangay 2 has a huge drug consumption.
Previously they get their supply from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City but now the supply comes from Marawi City. These are transported to Cebu and then to San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, Serenio said.
Shabu packs are packed in spare tires. They are covered with carbon paper to avoid detection in X-ray machines, he said.
Everything that Serenio disclosed will be put in an affidavit, Gumban said.
Some of the officers Serenio named during the PRO-18 investigation were already relieved; others will face criminal and administrative charges, he warned.
Serenio also asked to be placed under the government’s Witness Protection Program. He will be assessed, Gumban said.
Gumban said the Beria drug group’s operation was “Level 3,” meaning it was either provincial, regional or national in scope./PN
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