Drug personalities’ properties frozen

CEBU, Philippines —  Authorities served yesterday a freeze order on the properties owned by alleged drug lord Rustico Ygot and girlfriend Jocela Encila in Consolacion town.

The freeze order issued upon the instance of the Anti-Money Laundering Council covered a two-storey house in Barangay Casili and a three-storey apartment-type house in Barangay Jugan. All two houses were estimated to be worth P10 million.

AMLC spokesperson Atty. Rommel Trijo said six bank accounts, two vehicles, and assorted pieces of jewelry traced to the couple were also frozen.

Trijo said they sought for the preservation of the properties to prevent the other members of the drug syndicate from using the resources in their illegal operations. Police Regional Office-7 director Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro led yesterday’s service of the court order together with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Ferro said that despite being in jail after his arrest in Bohol in 2010, Ygot continued his illegal drug operations through his girlfriend. Using the proceeds of their illegal operations, Ygot and Encila acquired the properties now subject of the freeze order.

Encila, whom police regarded as drug queen in Consolacion, was later arrested in a buy-bust operation on March 3, 2019.

According to the police, the Casili and Jugan properties were used by Ygot and Encila as warehouses for drugs because these were ideally located.

“Very ideal to hide the contraband kasi ito ay peaceful area and the neighbor cannot see what is going (on) inside because of the highwalls…it is really secured,” Ferro said.

“In our investigation the 10 kilograms of shabu that were confiscated in drug bust here inside the house, parang ito yung storage area nila but the illegal drugs were utilized in the major parts of Cebu,” said former Consolacion Police Station chief Major Gerard Ace Pelare of the Casili property.

Both the Casili and Jugan properties were located in secluded areas and were heavily guarded with CCTV cameras. The high perimeter walls were also surrounded with barb wires on top. The properties were left abandoned since the arrest of Ygot and Encila.   FPL (FREEMAN)