CEBU, Philippines - Police authorities seized P1.8 million worth of Nalbuphine hydrochloride, more commonly known as Nubain from a drugstore owner and three other men yesterday noon at B. Rodriguez St., Barangay Sambag 2.
Roel Garcia, 41; his Australian boyfriend, Andrew Jessuf; his younger brother Joselito Garcia, 31; and store attendant, Randy Torres, 28, were arrested during a buy-bust operation.
A box containing 52 smaller boxes of Nubain, recently classified as a dangerous drug, was recovered from the house of the Garcias, said Supt. Pablo Labra II of the Investigation and Detective Management Branch.
Labra said Roel and Jessuf was arrested in the house shortly after the arrest of Joselito and Torres who were manning the family-owned Botica Sugbuanon along Waling-waling St.
Labra said it was Torres who received the P13,000 bust money from a poseur-buyer at the store, keeping P1,000 as his commission and handing over the remaining P12,000 to Joselito.
Accompanied by the two, the authorities went to the Garcia residence were the couple handed over 200 ampoules of nubain to the police who then arrested them.
Labra said they found near the suspects a box which contained 5,200 nubain ampoules amounting to P1.8 million as each ampoule costs P350.
Roel, in an interview with reporters, said the police suddenly went to their house to arrest him. Even his brother, Joselito, who was still sleeping inside, was also arrested.
He said they used to sell nubain but they decided to keep the box after the law considered it an illegal drug until they acquired the yellow prescription to sell such drugs.
Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, director of Cebu City Police Office, said this is their biggest haul of Nubain so far since the law classifying nubain as an illegal drug was approved.
Meanwhile, a drug pusher was arrested with 46 small heat-sealed plastic packs of shabu amounting P11,500 by policemen of the Santa Fe Police Station last Wednesday afternoon.
Now detained in the Santa Fe police stockade is Eugene Escarlan, 39, alias “Longhair”, a resident of barangay Pooc.
The arrest was by virtue of search warrant issued by Judge Antonio Marigomen of Regional Trial Court Branch 61 in Bogo City.
Aside from the shabu, policemen led by Insp. Jaime Tolentino also confiscated eight empty small plastic packs containing shabu residue, a red lighter, a cellular phone, nine P100 bills, a nubain ampoule, a pad of aluminum foil, five empty nubain ampoules and two syringes.
The confiscated drugs were brought to the Philippine Crime Laboratory 7 in Camp Sotero Cabahug for examination.
Escarlan has been under surveillance for almost a month after reports of his illegal activities reached the authorities.
The search was carried out in the residence of Escarlan about 12:30 p.m. He did not resist arrest.
Santa Fe police chief tagged Escarlan as a Level 3 drug pusher who can sell at least 46 packs up to 200 grams of shabu amounting to more or less P2.3 million in two days.
The suspect’s primary source is someone from Cebu City.
“Posible nga ang ubang dili taga-Santa Fe ngari mukuha niya kay naa man pud ni mga runner,” Tolentino said.
Possible drug couriers of the suspects are now being monitored, the official said.
Violation of Section 11 of RA 9165 will be filed against the suspect today in the RTC-Bogo City.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-7 announced that the government operatives in Central Visayas have confiscated P35.6 million-worth of illegal drugs from 713 suspected drug personalities arrested last year.
Although PDEA-7 Regional Director Adrian Alvariño failed to give statistics of their accomplishment in 2009, he claimed that their accomplishments last year is much better compared to the previous year.
Alvariño said that most of their accomplishments were a product of joint operations with policemen assigned to different police stations and units in the region.
Of the 713 arrested drug suspects 628 of them were male while the rest were female. Most of the suspects were arrested for selling illegal drugs that is why only 13 of them were released on bail.
While there were only 713 drug suspects arrested during the whole year, the PDEA and police operatives filed 742 cases because aside from the illegal drugs, the police also seized other contraband from some of the suspects.
Alvariño said a total of 162 assorted types of weapon, such as guns and knives, and 10 pieces of communication equipment and two vehicles were seized from the suspects.
Only 126 of the suspects were in the police watchlist, 11 were in the target list while the rest are considered “new” in the drug trafficking trade.
Shabu is still the most common illegal drugs being sold by the drug pushers in the region. (FREEMAN)