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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Sunday, February 26, 2017
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WHAT NOW? Drug suspect Ramon Platon, former barangay captain of Intaluan, Pototan, Iloilo, ponders his fate after his arrest. A kilo of shabu was recovered in his house by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Feb. 25, 2017. IAN PAUL CORDERO/PN
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ILOILO City – Shabu worth P8 million was seized from the former barangay captain of Intaluan, Pototan, Iloilo – the biggest shabu haul of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Western Visayas so far this year.
“Napaka-slippery na dorogista (a very slippery drug suspect),” was how Deputy Regional director Levi Ortiz described the 50-year-old Ramon Platon who was listed No. 1 in PDEA’s list of high-value drug targets in Iloilo province.
From his house after the 6 a.m. antidrug operation, PDEA operatives took Platon to the agency’s detention facility in Iloilo City.
Platon was already peddling shabu even when he was still the barangay captain of Intaluan, Pototan, according to Ortiz.
He said Platon previously got his stocks from two suspected drug lords based in Iloilo City – Melvin “Dragon” Odicta Sr. in Barangay Tanza Esperanza, City Proper and Richard “Buang” Prevendido in Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao district.
But after Odicta was killed in August last year and Prevendido went into hiding, Platon found suppliers in Negros Island and Mindanao, said Ortiz.
Platon had been under PDEA surveillance since last year. But according to Ortiz, his men could not easily arrange a transaction with the suspect.
“Medyo nahirapan kami (We had a hard time) but we finally got to convince him to sell a big volume of shabu,” said Ortiz.
PDEA operatives came prepared for the early morning buy-bust operation. They were also armed with a search warrant so after Platon was busted they immediately searched his house.
Aside from a number of shabu sachets that a PDEA operative bought from the suspect, a kilo of shabu with an estimated street value of P8 million and drug paraphernalia were also recovered from Platon, said Ortiz.
The search warrant was issued by Judge Vicente Go of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 68.
After Platon realized that he was being entrapped, he immediately ran to the window and threw outside the one kilo of shabu concealed in a foil pack labeled “Refined Chinese Tea.”
The suspect may have suppliers in Cebu City, too. Ortiz said the kilo of shabu in the foil pack was “similar sa nakuha na rin sa Cebu in antidrug raids. Pareho sila ng packaging.”
“He would personally get his stocks from his suppliers and was directly transacting with the buyers himself,” added the deputy regional director.
Ortiz suspected Platon to be a drug user, too, or the suspect had transformed his house into a drug den, citing the drug paraphernalia recovered.
Platon faces a charge for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Ortiz said Platon was also a suspected member of a group engaged in kidnapping and gun-for hire activities.
The suspect has a pending criminal case in court for double murder in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo last year, said Ortiz./PN
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