Police arrest drug surrenderer with P80 thousands shabu

CEBU, Philippines — It is not an assurance that a surrenderer in the government's double barrel program would not continue in his illegal drug trade, and this was proven when one was arrested on Monday afternoon with eight grams of shabu, worth about P80,000, per valuation of the Dangerous Drugs Board.

Operatives of the Provincial Intelligence Branch-Special Operations Group and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency searched the house of 41-year-old Joseph Duran, a married resident of Barangay Motong in Dumaguete City.

Armed with a court warrant, the operatives conducted the raid following reports that Duran has continued to be involved in the distribution of shabu.

Recovered by the search team were a bulto and nine sachets of shabu, disposable lighters, tinfoils, improvised tooter, improvised clipper, bundles of empty plastics, cellphone, improvised sealer and P1,500 cash believed to be proceeds of his illegal activity.  The inventory was witnessed by Brgy. Councilman Flordeliza Pinero.

Village Chairman Diony Amores told The Freeman that, during the launching of Tokhang in Motong on September 9 last year, Duran refused to voluntarily surrender, and was advised many times to stop his nefarious activity.

Three weeks ago, Duran finally heeded the request of Amores and attended a special Tokhang activity for surrenderers.

But the chairman's advises fell on deaf ears as reports persisted that Duran continued in his drug dealings, prompting the police to conduct the search. Amores said that, together with the Barangay Drug Abuse Council, they are staging a house-to-house drive, as part of the anti-illegal drugs campaign in the barangay.

Amores said this is the first time that a drug personality, in the person of Duran, was caught with a considerable quantity of illegal drugs in Motong.

PIB-SOG team leader Senior Inspector Armel Von Alegria said Duran's name as a drug distributor surfaced during tactical interrogations conducted in previous arrests at sitio Canday-ong in Barangay Calindagan. Alegria considered Duran a priority target.

Two live-in partners of Duran, suspected to be his runners, were present during the search, but the police failed to recover anything from them.  However, there was a video of Duran in his cellphone showing the two sniffing shabu in his residence last March 26.