P5.6 millions drugs, 81 arrested in police operations

CEBU, Philippines — A total of 79 personalities were arrested during the 63rd Oplan Pokemon, a weekly roundup against criminality in the city.

Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), including its 11 police stations, seized a total of 139 small packs of suspected shabu weighing 27.3 grams worth more than P300,000 during the 24-hour operation.

Chief Inspector Christopher Navida said that unlike the early months when Oplan Pokemon was started in July 2016, the number of arrested persons and the amount of drugs confiscated have gradually dwindled. 

However, police assured they will not be complacent in securing the city as they continue to coordinate with ports and other vulnerable points of entry since Cebu is considered as trans-shipment of illegal drugs.

On the other hand, a team from Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) uprooted 12,400 fully grown marijuana plants worth almost P5 million in the hinterland of Barangay Climaco, Toledo City.

Based on intelligence reports received by the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB), Juanito Ocareza, a resident of the place, was the cultivator of the marijuana plants but he eluded arrest during the operation.

Police took sample pieces of the plants to the PNP Crime Laboratory while the rest were burned.

Buy-Bust

Meanwhile, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA)-7 arrested in a buy-bust operation John Kenneth Tañajura, 18, and a 15-year-old girl in Barangay Pahina Central Tuesday dawn.

The suspects reported had in their possession 70 grams of shabu worth P350,000.

According to PDEA-7 spokesperson Leia Albiar, Tañajura is the son of Niño Tañajura, an ex-convict, who was gunned down on March 23 in Barangay San Nicolas.

The gunmen were arrested in a hot pursuit operation who admitted that they were hired, possibly by a drug lord, who is from Barangay Ermita but has gone to Mindanao. —MBG (FREEMAN)