In Negros Occidental P73.4 million shabu seized in two buy-bust ops

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — A total of P73.4 million worth of shabu was confiscated by authorities during two buy-bust operations, one in Bacolod City on Tuesday with P72 million shabu and the other in San Carlos City yesterday (Wednesday) with P1.4 million shabu.

Joint teams of operatives from the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, supported by Army soldiers, conducted the buy-bust operation at 12:30 a.m. yesterday at Barangay Palampas in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

However the three suspects, who transacted with police-poseur buyers, managed to escape, but left behind six kilos of shabu, wrapped with a packaging tape. A kilo of shabu has a street value of P12 million, based on the valuation of the Dangerous Drugs Board, thus the six kilos was worth P72 million.

Other items recovered from the fleeing suspects were a Skygo motorcycle, and the P6.8-million boodle money with a P100-bill marked money.

Superintendent D’Artagnan Katalbas, San Carlos City Police chief, yesterday identified the three suspects — who escaped towards a sugarcane plantation — as alias Potot, Armando and Josephine Paraquelles. He said these three are new players in the shabu trade in the city and in neighboring areas in northern Negros.

Earlier on Tuesday, the police confiscated a total of 120 grams of shabu, estimated to have a market value of P1.4 million, from two arrested persons, identified as Faisalin Ibra, 21, and Norhan Caunda, who are natives of Marawi City but temporarily residing at the Islamic Center, Lopez Jaena Street in Bacolod City.

The drug bust at San Carlos City was the second time this year in the same barangay, the first of which was in previous months during the arrest of habal-habal driver Christian Unabia who yielded more than half a kilo of shabu, worth P6.8 million.

Police investigations showed that drug traffickers are now very enterprising, noting their frequent change of mode of operations, including the use of new personalities and procedures in transporting supply of illegal drugs.

Katalbas said they monitored that drug traffickers used pump boats in transporting illegal drugs to the shores of San Carlos City and Calatrava town from Toledo City in Cebu.

The six kilos of shabu seized at past midnight of Wednesday was considered as the biggest haul of illegal drugs in Negros Occcidental, or even in Western Visayas, by law enforcement agencies, in several decades of anti-illegal drugs operations.

Katabas said they are still trying to determine the source of shabu seized from the three suspects. But Cebu has been identified by the PDEA and the PNP as among the sources of shabu that entered Negros Isand.

While they may able to neutralize the drug peddling activities of 30 street level pushers in San Carlos City, who are now locked up in jail, since January up to this time, Katalbas said the selling of illegal drugs continues, which indicated the existence of suppliers of shabu.