CADIZ City — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 yesterday filed charges against two illegal drug suspects who were subjects of a buy-bust operation here on Tuesday.
Charged with violation of Republic Act (RA) 9165 or Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act before the City Prosecutor’s Office here were Jonathan Badilles of Tongoy St., Brgy. Zone 5, and Kurt Reylan Majarucon of Punta Cabahug, Brgy. Zone 6.
Only Badilles was arrested in the operation that PDEA operatives staged in front of a pension house in Lara compound, Villena Street here.
Majarucon, a son of a barangay kagawad, eluded arrest after sensing the presence of anti-drug operatives.
He remained at large as of this writing and was charged in absentia.
Badilles claimed a box containing a stereo speaker from LBC, a courier service company. Operatives discovered that the stereo speaker was concealing a big sealed plastic containing 500–600 grams of shabu with a market value of P4.5 million.
Prior to the discovery of the package, Badilles sold to a poseur buyer a sachet of shabu for P500.
PDEA regional director Paul Ledesma and operatives John Carlo Daquiado and James Afung, and Cadiz City policemen staged the buy-bust.
Badilles, who worked as an overseas worker in Saudi Arabia, arrived on April 8 and was driving a tricycle for a living.
He denied any involvement in illegal drugs, claiming Majarucon was just paying him to get such package every time it arrives.
But Badilles tested positive for illegal drugs in a test conducted in the police crime laboratory in Iloilo City yesterday.
Badilles was taken back to this city for the filing of charges at about 3 p.m. He was specifically charged with violation of Sections 11 and 26 in relation to Section 5, Article 2 of RA 9165. He was detained in the lockup cell of the Cadiz City police station.
Majarucon, on the other hand, was charged with violation of Section 5, Article 2.
Drug suspects are now transporting shabu from Manila via courier service, Ledesma said.
In this particular modus — concealing drugs in a stereo speaker — the magnet inside the speaker prevents X-ray machines in ports from detecting the illicit substance, he said.
He said the series of drug operations in Negros Occidental and other parts of Western Visayas is part of PDEA’s intensified crackdown on big-time drug suspects.
/PN
