"Big-time drug dealers" arrested, cops sieze P80,000 worth of shabu

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Anti-illegal drugs operatives have arrested suspected big-time illegal drug pushers in this city after simultaneous operations in the sub-village of Canday-ong in Barangay Calindagan late Thursday evening.

The suspects were identified as Leticia Gonzales Enumerabillon 47, married, a relative, Fernando Enumerabillon, 38, married, and Ryan Tinagaban, all residents of Canday-ong in Calindagan.

Inspector Ryan Jay Orapa, head of the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group of the Negros Oriental Police, said his team, the City Police and the local PDEA carried out two simultaneous buy-bust operations.

Insp. Orapa said that around 10:05 p.m., he led a team of PAIDSOTG operatives and Dumaguete police personnel, in coordination with the local Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and carried out two simultaneous buy-bust operations that led to the arrest of the two suspects.

Seized from Leticia Enumerabillon were 12 sachets of suspected shabu and one big sachet or "bulto" (a Cebuano street slang for a large volume of illegal drugs), a P500 marked bill and bogus money used in the transaction and receipts from a courier service, said Orapa.

The suspected shabu confiscated from Leticia was estimated to have a street value of P73,000, said Orapa.

On the other hand, the operatives confiscated from Fernando Enumerabillon and Tinambakan two sachets containing suspected shabu, valued at around P7,000, a P500 marked bill and bogus money.

The suspects are now detained and criminal charges in violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act were filed against them yesterday, said Orapa.

Orapa disclosed the suspects were allegedly part of a large network engaged in the illegal drugs trade with their main source of shabu coming from the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City in Metro Manila. Leticia's live-in partner, Armando Alonzo alias Gaga, is also inside the Bilibid serving a sentence also for a drug-related case, he added.

Meanwhile, another suspected drug pusher was arrested in a raid in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, some 100 kilometers north of this capital, on the same day, said Orapa, adding that the raid was done by virtue of a search warrant issued by Judge Kennedy Duka of the Municipal Trial Circuit Court of Guihulngan dated last May 15.

Arrested was a certain Jose Besmanos Pableo, 28, single and a resident of Brgy. Poblacion in Guihulngan. Taken from his possession were five pieces of transparent plastic sachet containing suspected shabu, nine other plastic sachets with "shabu residue", four pieces of tin foil, three pieces of lighter and more than P12,000 in cash.

Pableo was charged with violation of Section 6 (maintenance of a den, dive or resort where dangerous drug is used or sold) and Section 11 (possession of any dangerous drugs) of Article II of Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act. (FREEMAN)