Former narc nabbed in shabu buy-bust

MANILA, Philippines - From being a member of an anti-narcotics group to now being accused of drug peddling.

A police officer and his cohort were arrested by combined operatives of the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) during a buy-bust operation in Kalibo, Aklan last June 28.

PDEA Director General Undersecretary Jose Gutierrez, Jr. said PO2 Edsel Tan, 33, used to be a member of the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group.

Tan hails from Tanza, Iloilo City, and his alleged cohort, Ethyl Ann Fabiosa, 27, from Escalante, Negros Occidental.

A drug transaction was earlier hatched between Fabiosa and a poseur-buyer on Rizal Street in Kalibo.

After she received the P1,000 marked money in exchange for shabu, policemen and PDEA-Region 6 agents under Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz immediately collared Fabiosa.

Recovered from Fabiosa was a cellular phone containing text messages of illegal drug transactions.

An hour later, a follow-up operation was conducted along Osmeña Avenue in Barangay Estancia, Kalibo which resulted in the arrest of Tan after he sold a plastic sachet of shabu to a poseur-buyer.

Tan yielded a 9-mm caliber pistol, 9-mm ammunition, and a plastic bag containing plastic sachets.

The two suspects now face charges for sale of dangerous drugs under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.