3 men nabbed for drugs in Talamban

CEBU, Philippines - Police arrested three people having a pot session inside what was believed to be a drug den in Barangay Talamban in a buy-bust operation late Saturday night.

Cipriano Barba, 44; Roland Amaro, 37; and Raymundo Durano, were arrested by elements of the City Intelligence Branch.

Seized from them were a huge pack of suspected shabu and two other packs of the same white powdery substance that amounted to over P30,000.

Chief  Insp. Romeo Santander, CIB chief, said they acted on another tip that they received from a concerned citizen regarding Amaro’s illegal drug trade in the barangay.

Santander said they proceeded to a house in sitio Cadajoan at past 11 pm and through a police decoy, pretended to buy P200 worth of shabu from Amaro.

As soon as Amaro handed over the drugs and received the marked money from the police decoy, he was arrested.

Six other men were found inside Amaro’s house, two of them were Barba and Durano.

Santander said they invited the four others for questioning and later released them after appearing to be innocent of the ongoing pot session.

The CIB chief said they seized one huge pack of suspected shabu weighing 5 grams from Amaro and further recovered two smaller packs of the same drugs from Durano inside the house, which was described to be a drug den.

Santander said the seized drugs amounted to P30,400. Two of the small packs each had a street value of P200.

Drug paraphernalia such as rolled tin foils, lighters, and tooter, among others, were recovered from the place.

Santander said Amaro is in their watch list of drug personalities in the city. Barba, he further disclosed, supplied Amaro the drugs.

The CIB chief said the consecutive anti-drug operations they conducted materialized because of the community’s help.

“Thankful lang pud ko sa community ma’am kay daghan na sige’g text regarding illegal drugs after sa nakuha nato nga dako ma’am,” said Santander, referring to their operation last Friday that led to the arrest of alleged big-time drug pusher Roger Roxas and the confiscation of P7.8 million worth of shabu.

The suspects no longer resisted arrest and even admitted to using illegal drugs. Barba, however, denied supplying the 5 grams of shabu to Amaro.

Charges for possession and selling shabu will be filed against the suspects today. —(FREEMAN)