CEBU, Philippines - A noted pusher in barangay Pitalo, San Fernando town was nabbed on Saturday night with illegal drugs amounting almost P50,000 and drug paraphernalia.
Suspect Lester Manloloyo, 31, tried but failed to elude arrest. His cohorts, however, managed to flee.
The arrest was by virtue of a search warrant issued on January 25 by Judge Soliver Peras of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 10.
Seized from Manloloyo were one medium pack and two small packs of white substance believed to be shabu, two separate transparent plastic sachets also filled with the substance, a digital weighing scale and an improvised glass tooter.
The items are now in the custody of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory in Camp Sotero Cabahug.
The arrest was conducted by the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (PAIDSOTG) of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) led by SPO4 Ernesto Navales in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7. The operation was closely supervised by PAIDSOTG chief Teofilo Siclot.
Navales said Manloloyo and his two cohorts, Joseph “Bulljack” Paradela who was armed with a .45 caliber pistol at that time and a certain “Orly” scampered to different directions.
Navales said he was forced to fire a warning shot but the suspects continued to run away prompting the operatives to chase them.
Manloloyo was collared near the house of his mother.
Navales told The FREEMAN that Manloloyo was under surveillance for almost two weeks before they carried out the operation.
Monloloyo allegedly disposed up to 100 grams of shabu a week, although not on a regular basis.
He has been in the watch list of PAIDSOTG. He was jailed for almost two years after a prior arrest, but was eventually cleared from charges.
Navales said Manloloyo allegedly used to sell the substance himself in the streets and it was just recently that he hired the services of couriers.
Manloloyo is temporarily detained at the San Fernando police stockade awaiting the formal filing of charges against him for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.
Just last week, elements of PDEA arrested a suspected drug den operator after yielding almost a hundred packs of suspected shabu during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City.
The arrest of Edwin Gutierrez, 36, was PDEA’s first operation in response to the directive they received two weeks ago from newly-installed PDEA Director General Jose Gutierrez to eliminate all monitored drug dens in the country. — (FREEMAN)