[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’SHOOTOUT IN ANTIQUE | Cops kill top drug suspect’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Sunday, May 7, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
ILOILO City – A high-value drug target was killed in a shootout with policemen in Barangay San Roque, Anini-y, Antique – the fifth drug personality in Western Visayas to die in the police’s antidrug campaign this year.
Jeremy Garcia of Barangay Lisub-B, Anini-y died of gunshot wounds on the head and body.
He was No. 1 in Anini-y police station’s list of suspected drug personalities, said Senior Inspector Janvier Gilza, municipal police chief.
Garcia was subjected to a buy-bust operation around 6:30 p.m. on Friday. He sold a sachet of shabu to an undercover police officer for P1,000.
“When my men were about to arrest him, he pulled out a gun from his waist and fired thrice at the cops,” Gilza told Panay News.
The gun was a .38 revolver.
“Luckily my policemen were not hit. He left them with no choice but fire back at him,” said Gilza.
Garcia was a subgroup leader of the Elton Cepeda drug group in Antique, according to the Anini-y police chief.
Cepeda was gunned down in 2015.
“When Cepeda died, Garcia took over his leader’s drug trafficking activities,” said Gilza added.
Garcia became the fifth drug suspect in Region 6 killed in the antidrug campaign this year.
The first casualty was also an Antiqueño, the 42-year-old Elphy Sagpao. On Jan.1 he was shot dead by policemen of Culasi town, the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group and the Regional Public Safety Battalion.
It was never clear where Sagpao got his supply of shabu.
Four days after Sagpao was killed, a 23-year-old suspected member of the Islamic separatist group Moro National Liberation Front got killed in an antidrug operation of the police in Barangay Funda-Dalipe, San Jose, Antique.
Joevanny Malutao Ballenas of Barangay Palma, Barbaza, Antique died of eight gunshot wounds.
An undercover police officer was able to buy a heat-sealed plastic sachet containing suspected shabu from Ballenas for P1,000. When he realized he was being entrapped, he fired his gun though he missed the policeman.
The undercover policeman’s backup cops fired back at Ballenas.
Last month, on April 8, two of Capiz’s high-value targets – Charles Lubao of Roxas City and Billy Juanico – died in a police antidrug operation in Barangay Tuburan, Zarraga, Iloilo.
Lubao was a “notorious” drug personality operating in Capiz as well as the province’s capital city of Roxas, according to Senior Superintendent Samuel Nacion, Capiz police director.
Lubao and Juanico evaded arrest during a drug operation Roxas City.
In Zarraga, they fought back after realizing they were being entrapped.
Recovered from Lubao were 19 sachets of suspected shabu and a homemade firearm.
Juanico fell on the ground, still holding a hand grenade./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
