Court sentences man for being in a drug den

The court yesterday sentenced a 25-year-old man to 10 years imprisonment and ordered him to pay a fine of P100,000 after authorities found him inside a drug den in Junquera Street.

In his testimony, SPO2 Ricardo Abesia said he, SPO1 Maxim Lozano and PO2 Cyril Valencia, on August 26, 2002, after monitoring activities of a shanty which was reportedly used as a drug den, went inside it and saw three persons, one of whom was Dennis Raganas. The other two were later on identified as Archie Nava and Ronjay Ybañez.

A separate case was filed for each of the three suspects, as well as the shanty's owner Zacarias Godinez, who is still at large.

Abesia testified in court that they found a tin foil with shabu traces, an improvised tooter and three sets of shabu scattered on the floor of the one-room shanty. He added that although they did not see Raganas holding any of the said items, he could not answer them when they asked him why he was in the shanty.

Raganas, however, told the court that he and his girlfriend, a prostitute, were inside a rented shanty in Junquera and while his girlfriend went out to buy food, police came barging in.

Judge Fortunato de Gracia Jr. however dismissed his defense as a hollow support to the allegations against him.- Liv G. Campo