Cops track Jaguar’s drug ring successor

CEBU, Philippines - Police Regional Office-7 is validating intelligence report that the slain drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz has now a successor operating in the region.

PRO-7 director Chief Superintendent Noli Taliño said it is not impossible because succession usually happens among drug syndicates.

“Normal ‘yan sa ilang sindikato na kapag may namamatay sa itaas, may papalit,” he told reporters.

He said his office is checking on the list of possible successors, including high value targets, submitted by its intelligence unit. He, however, refused to disclose the names.

Should the report be true, Taliño further urged Jaguar’s successor to show up and surrender unless he wants to be killed in police operations.

Diaz along with one of his cohorts was shot dead during an operation of Regional Intelligence Division-7 operatives and Las Piñas police last June in Barangay Almanza, Las Piñas City.

His death came a week after he granted an interview to the media where he promised to surrender. Police said the subject of the operation was actually Alvaro Alvaro alias "Barok", also a top drug personality.

Alvaro and Diaz were reportedly seen together which prompted the police to tail the vehicle they were using. However, it was Diaz who was flagged down by the police and killed in the encounter together with a certain Paul Vincent Gloria of Las Piñas who served as his driver and guard.

Superintendent Rex Derilo, who was then the chief of the Regional Intelligence Division-7, led the team that killed Diaz. He was later transferred to PRO-9 while his companion, Superintendent George Ylanan was also transferred to PRO-10.

The reassignment was reportedly part of the major revamp implemented by Camp Crame in the police hierarchy.

Fatal blow

Meanwhile, Taliño said the recent submission of Franz Sabalones, another suspected drug lord in Central Visayas, was a big blow to the illegal drug trade in the region.

“Malaking bagay na ‘yan considering he is one of the top drug lords identified by the police,” he said.

He has also given vital information to the police that could put an end to the illegal drugs operation in Central Visayas.

“He is the best that we got yesterday. Napakarami nyang binibigay, napakaraming dapat sundan kaya halos malito yung ating mga investigators.  Napakaganda yung mga leads and it will be a very fatal blow sa mga drug operations sa kanyang kinasasakupan,” said Chief Superintendent Roel Obusan, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Obusan said Sabalones identified personalities and his protectors from the PNP, but the official declined to provide the names pending the verification of the information.

“Yung mga pangalang nabanggit siyempre they will be subjected to validation and subjected to getting of evidence para naman if that evidence will warrant for a filing of a cases we will file a case,” he said.

Obusan said they started placing Sabalones under questioning right after his presentation to the media on Monday morning, around 10 a.m. and it went on until 11 p.m.

The questioning resumed Tuesday morning, he said.

Sabalones, who became a top drug lord in Central Visayas after the death of Diaz, surrendered to PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa Sunday night and confessed how he led the illegal drugs operations in Central Visayas.

He also admitted giving P200,000 weekly protection money to a police official with a rank of a colonel. Dela Rosa said the official was already transferred to Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (FREEMAN)