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Policemen catch 12 repacking, snorting shabu ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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ILOILO City – A police antidrug operation in the island resort of Boracay proved drug trafficking remains a problem in the country’s world-renowned tourist destination.
Twelve suspected drug pushers and users were arrested on Sunday night in Barangay Balabag, Boracay in Malay, Aklan. They were either repacking shabu or snorting it, police said.
Senior Inspector Jess Baylon, Boracay Tourist Assistance Center (BTAC) chief, considered the house of arrested suspect Mark Anthony Galicia a “drug den.”
Around 8:45 p.m., an undercover police officer bought shabu from Galicia.
“He ran to his house after realizing he was being entrapped. Our men chased him. They found 11 other suspects in the house,” said Baylon.
Policemen seized from the house 20 sachets of shabu valued at P50,000 and drugs paraphernalia.
“The 11 were either using shabu or repacking them,” Baylon said.
BTAC had long been monitoring Galicia’s movements, he revealed.
The 11 other suspects were John Barry Camua, Aldwin Kirk Abello, John Aldrin Francisco, Jeston Tonic, Michael Dave Salcedo, Hilmar Celestino, Alvin Calitizen, Harlie Verano, Rommel Sollano, Kim Delicano, and Rafael Ybañez, all residents of Barangay Balabag, Boracay Island.
All the 12 suspects were detained at the BTAC.
As of this writing, the BTAC was hoping to extract information from the suspects about their suppliers.
The suspects face charges for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Just this Sept. 21, two suspected members of Cebu-based slain drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz were arrested in Barangay Manoc-manoc, Boracay. Rogelio Jasper Dela Rosa was a 40-year-old resident of New Buswang, Kalibo, Aklan while Reenan Enricoso, 34, was a native of Consolacion, Cebu City.
The suspects were caught in a buy-bust operation. They sold a sachet of shabu worth P1,000 to an undercover policeman, said Baylon.
The two were caretakers of Diaz’s Boracay house.
“They were shabu suppliers in Boracay but we don’t know yet where they got their supply,” said Baylon.
Two weeks before the arrest of Dela Rosa and Enricoso, BTAC received information that a kilo of shabu was brought to the two suspects.
Baylon believed that after Diaz was killed on June 17, 2016, the two suspects took over the illegal drug trade in Boracay.
The police recovered from Dela Rosa a sachet of shabu, a .38 revolver, ammunitions and a cellular phone.
Enricoso yielded two sachets of shabu.
The suspects were detained at the lock-up cell of BTAC and charged with illegal drug possession and peddling.
The arrest of Dela Rosa and Enricoso came a month after the police busted in Sitio Bulabog, Barangay Balabag, Boracay 18 Taiwanese and seven Chinese nationals suspected of trafficking illegal drugs in the world-famous island resort. They were also believed to be engaged in cybercrime operations.
According to Baylon of Boracay, the foreigners had been staying in the island for two years now.
They were suppliers of party drug ecstasy, shabu and other injectable illegal drugs, said Baylon.
“We found various illegal drugs. We believe they are members of an international drug syndicate,” Baylon told Panay News.
The Taiwanese and Chinese suspects likely engaged in cybercrime operations, too, he said, citing a list of Chinese bank accounts and contact numbers the cops recovered.
The foreigners were deported.
“Syndicates like them usually enter the Philippines as tourists then rent houses where they set up their illegal operations,” said Senior Superintendent John Mitchell Jamili, Aklan police director./PN
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