2 'large-scale' shabu dealers in Cotabato province nabbed

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two alleged large-scale shabu dealers were arrested one after another in separate police operations in Makilala town in Cotabato before dawn Saturday after three months of joint surveillance by local executives and anti-narcotics agents.

In separate reports on Saturday to Region 12 police director Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, the Makilala Municipal Police Station and the Cotabato Provincial Police Office stated that the suspects Jessie Emboc Clerigo, 37, and the 32-year-old Jon Vergel Estopacia Fancubilla are now both detained, to be prosecuted for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 using the shabu confiscated from them as evidence.

Policemen first arrested Clerigo after they found shabu in his house in Barangay Poblacion, Makilala.  Two hours later, another police team found shabu hidden in Fancubilla’s residence in Barangay Taluntalunan in the same municipality. Both search operations were carried out based on warrants from the Regional Trial Court Branch 23 in nearby Kidapawan City.

The operations that led to the arrest of the duo, long subject of surveillance by police intelligence agents and municipal officials, were planned with the help of Makilala residents privy to their illegal activities.

Macaraeg and Col. Gilberto Tuzon, Cotabato provincial police director, said it was expected that the teams that carried out both operations have not found big volumes of shabu from the houses of both suspects since large-scale dealers are known for storing their illegal merchandise far from their locations, keeping only few sachets of it in their hideouts for their consumption.