12 arrested in Talisay drug raid

CEBU, Philippines – Twelve men were arrested during a raid at an alleged drug den in Barangay Tangke, Talisay City shortly before noon yesterday.

The operation also yielded shabu worth an estimated P200,600.

Among those arrested was a certain Delmar Gasalatan Gaviola, suspected drug pusher and one of the four targets of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7.

Supt. Fermin Armendarez III, CIDG-7 deputy chief, said the other targets, identified only as Baka, Insik, and Robot, eluded arrest.

The three and Gaviola were reportedly the ones who supplied small time sellers.

The other men arrested, Richard Relampagos, Jeffrey Bullicer, Joven Engbino, Robert Singco, Darwin Bayadog, Lester Heruela, Wilmar Bacaldo, Ricky Galo, Danilo Pantaleon, Jessie Cabane, and Johnrey Saburdo, were reportedly inside the den at that time.

Armendarez said the operation yesterday was the second they hatched in Sitio Galaxy after learning that illegal drugs operations there returned to “normal” after the raid in the last quarter of 2015. 

Armendarez said they were alarmed that accessing shabu in the area became as easy as buying candies.

Yesterday, CIDG personnel swooped down on the suspects after the poseur-buyer bought two packs of suspected shabu from Gaviola. They also recovered 205 packs of suspected shabu and several drug paraphernalia.

Meanwhile, in Cordova town, police rescued at least four minors and arrested a suspected drug pusher during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Dapitan last Friday afternoon.

Eduardo Gualin and his cohort, Roland Ligan, were arrested after they sold a pack of shabu to a police poseur-buyer.

A search on the two yielded 21 small packs of suspected shabu and the buy-bust money.

The minors, aged 16, 13, and 17, were rescued from the suspects’ house and turned over to the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office of the town.  —/JMO (FREEMAN)