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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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January 22, 2018
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4 drug suspects nabbed, P.3M shabu seized
ILOILO City – A drug pushing suspect’s arrest in Barangay Abilay, Oton, Iloilo led to the discovery of a “shabu bodega” in Barangay Sooc, Arevalo district.
It was actually a rest house where drug pushers picked up their stocks but these people called it their bodega, said Senior Inspector Kennith Bermejo, chief of the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU).
It all started with the capture of Virgilio Imperio, 24, of Barangay Abilay, Oton in a buy-bust operation around 4 p.m. on Saturday. He sold a sachet of shabu to an RDEU undercover police officer for P2,000.
Twenty-one more sachets valued at P50,000 were found in Imperio’s possession, said Bermejo.
At the Oton police station where Imperio was taken, the suspect told the police where he got his shabu – a rest house in Barangay Sooc, Arevalo.
The RDEU decided to make a follow-up operation – another buy-bust – and cornered two 17-year-old suspects in the so-called shabu bodega around 6:30 p.m.
A police asset initially bought from the two youngsters a sachet of shabu for P10,000, said Bermejo.
Policemen recovered 109 more sachets of shabu valued at P200,000.
After two hours, the RDEU entrapped the man whom Imperio claimed was managing the shabu bodega. At the time of the two teenagers’ arrest at the rest house, this man was not yet around.
A cop managed to buy from 30-year-old Reynold Fruelda a sachet of shabu for P2,100 around 8:30 p.m.
According to Bermejo, eight more big sachets of shabu worth P180,000 were recovered from Fruelda at the rest house.
The three sets of shabu confiscations had a total value of P330,000.
Bermejo said Fruelda got the shabu from Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao district, the base of slain drug lord Richard Prevendido.
“Drug pushers would pick their shabu orders from Fruelda’s rest house in Barangay Sooc,” said Bermejo.
The RDEU chief said the shabu they seized was intended for the Dinagyang Festival.
“If they were not arrested and the shabu not recovered, pila ka tawo kag kabataan ang mahalitan,” said Bermejo.
The two teenaged suspects were turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development while Fruelda was detained at the Arevalo police station.
All four suspects face a charge for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The RDEU antidrug operations in Oton and Arevalo district were carried out a day after the Iloilo Police Provincial Office’s Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit caught two suspected shabu couriers in Barangay Cabugao Sur, Pavia, Iloilo.
The suspects were Andy Sause, 39, of Barangay Banago, Bacolod City and Jaser Galino, 20, of Barangay Libo-o, Dingle, Iloilo.
Sause sold to an undercover police officer a big plastic pack of shabu worth P25,000.
Thirty smaller plastic packs of the same substance worth P130,000 placed in a sling bag were further recovered.
Galino, on the other hand, yielded a big plastic pack of shabu worth P30,000, according to Chief Inspector Jonathan Pinuela, PDEU chief.
“These were intended for the Dinagyang Festival,” said Pinuela.
Marking its 50th anniversary this month, Dinagyang Festival is expected to attract not only tourists but also drug traffickers. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) are on their toes.
There is a “big possibility” that drug syndicates will use new players the authorities are not familiar with, according to Bermejo.
The police and PDEA agreed to step up antidrug operations before the Dinagyang highlights on Jan. 27 (Kasadyahan cultural contest) and Jan. 28 (ati-ati tribes competition).
The most likely entry points of shabu are the seaports. Bermejo said the Maritime Command – the seaborne unit of the Philippine National Police – has been tasked to guard these ports in coordination with the Philippine Coast Guard./PN
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