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[av_heading heading=’ ‘High-value’ city drug suspect busted ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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ILOILO City – A drug pushing suspect in this city was arrested in Barangay Ilawod Poblacion, Zarraga, Iloilo yesterday.
The 35-year-old Maricel Orbe of Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao district was classified a “high-value-target, level 1” in the city, said Inspector Kennith Bermejo of the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU).
An undercover police officer of RDEU bought from Orbe a sachet of shabu for P1,200 around 1:30 p.m. yesterday.
Fifty-three more sachets were seized from the suspect and these were valued at P80,000.
Orbe and companion Roman Galve, a 22-year-old tricycle driver, were both taken to the Zarraga police station.
Orbe was placed under surveillance for two months prior to yesterday’s buy-bust operation.
According to Bermejo, Orbe’s area of operation was Iloilo City but she also had transactions in Iloilo province.
Orbe, however, denied owning the sachets that the police seized.
She told Panay News she rented Galve’s tricycle to visit her husband Arian who was detained at the Iloilo District Jail in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo for an illegal drug charge.
“I’m not a drug pusher. I don’t know where the police got the shabu,” said Orbe.
Galve, meanwhile, denied conspiring with Orbe to sell shabu.
He said Orbe rented his tricycle for P250 for a trip to Pototan.
“I’m a tricycle driver. I’m not involved in illegal drugs. I’m not a drug user, too,” he insisted.
Bermejo said Orbe’s drug transactions were done inside the district jail.
Jail warden Senior Inspector Abner Zamora said Orbe visited her husband almost everyday.
“Indi gid naton na ma-sure kun sin-o gid contact nya sa sulod or basi mismo ang iya bana. Pero beyond our control ina. Indi man pwede nga samtang naga-istorya sila sang iya bana sa visitors’ area matambong man kami dira kag mamati, kay against man ina sa ila kinamatarong,” said Zamora.
Orbe’s husband is a nephew of fugitive suspected drug lord Richard Prevendido./PN
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