P1M shabu confiscated

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  — An illegal drug buy-bust operation Thursday evening resulted in the confiscation of 18 bultos of shabu, weighing a total of 97.7 grams, with an estimated value of P1.18 million.

Authorities also arrested the suspected drug pusher, 42-year-old Walter Cielo Arbas, alias Bating, a resident of Barangay Tinago in this city, who handed the drugs to a police poseur-buyer at a kandingan (goat slaughterhouse) at Barangay Poblacion 3.

Also seized from Arbas were a .38-caliber revolver with five live bullets, a mobile phone, a Honda Wave 100 motorcycle and the marked money used in the “transaction.”

The arresting team consisted of the City Police, led by Superintendent Jovito Atanacio, the Special Operations Group/Provincial Intelligence Bureau under Chief Inspector Benedict Poblete, the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group led by Senior Inspector Ryan Jay Orapa, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Orapa said Arbas has been tagged as a level-3 drug pusher and one of the top 10 drug personalities in the city, having been jailed in the past for illegal drugs.  (FREEMAN)