BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO City – Shabu with an estimated street value of P4.5 million was seized in a buy-bust operation that operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) staged in Barangay Buray, Oton, Iloilo yesterday afternoon.
A total of 765 grams of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) were recovered from Jesusito Pedrajas, 41, of San Pedro, Laguna at Cecile’s restaurant where the sting operation was conducted.
“This is so far the biggest drug seizure in Panay Island,” said Senior Inspector Jigger Gemino, Oton police chief.
The shabu was found inside a canister of Pringles, a stackable snack chips.
Oton policemen helped PDEA carry out the buy-bust operation.
Pedrajas was placed under surveillance for more than a month prior to his arrest yesterday.
“We were lucky to get him finally,” Gemino said.
After the sting operation, the suspect was detained at the PDEA cell in Iloilo City.
The Oton police earlier received information that Pedrajas would be entering Iloilo province on August 16 (yesterday) via the roll-on, roll-off port in Barangay Caticlan in Malay, Aklan.
“From Caticlan, he proceeded to Oton presumably to meet someone,” Gemino added.
The police intelligence network traced the origin of Pedrajas’ stocks to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.
The suspect would deliver shabu on a pay-to-order basis, according to police sources.
Pedrajas has relatives in Pototan, Iloilo where he reportedly stays whenever he visits Iloilo. He would be charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Yesterday was “his first delivery in Oton,” Gemino said.
This was the second case of big shabu haul in Oton in less than a year. Last Nov. 28, 2013, some P2-million worth of shabu was seized from two suspected drug dealers in Barangay Botong.
PDEA operatives cornered 37-year-old Orestes Estrebor and 18-year-old Christian Morin at Nes & Tats resort and restaurant.
Both suspects, residents of Barangay Poblacion, Oton, yielded 235.6 grams of shabu (nearly one fourth of a kilo) and a weighing scale.
At that time, this was one of the biggest illegal drug seizures in Iloilo.
Estrebor and Morin were placed under surveillance for several days prior to their arrest.
PDEA regional director Paul Ledesma said the suspects operated in the 1st District of Iloilo and among the “big-time” drug dealers in Iloilo.
Citing intelligence sources, Ledesma said somebody was tasked to pick up the shabu from Estrebor at Nes & Tats.
In an interview after his arrest, Estrebor denied he was a drug dealer. He said he had just arrived from Manila and that a friend from there who learned he was going back to Iloilo gave him an envelope to be picked up by somebody at the resort.
Estrebor identified the alleged friend as Jun Tauro of Brgy. Calam-isan, Oton.
“I did not bother to ask him what was inside the envelope. I never thought it contained shabu,” Estrebor claimed then./PN
