In three hours: 4 arrested in separate incidents for ‘shabu’

CEBU, Philippines - At least four persons in Cebu City were arrested with packs of shabu in separate police operations Friday night.

In Barangay Pit-os, Gyges Duites alias “Ate Gay,” 24, was placed under arrest after he handed over a pack of shabu worth P200 to a police decoy during a buy-bust operation at 9 p.m.

The team from Talamban Police Station further seized from Duites a big pack of suspected shabu, which had a street value of P80,000.

Duites is a native of Mabalakat, Pampanga City and is living alone in Cebu City with illegal drugs allegedly as his way of living.

The suspect is now detained at Talamban Police Station.

An hour later, two other men were arrested in another buy-bust operation in Barangay Mambaling.

Mambaling police arrested Lemuel Itaas alias “Tapio,” who yielded 15 sachets of suspected shabu, and his companion Lawrence Zabate, who was allegedly caught preparing to sniff shabu.

During the operation at around 10 p.m. last Friday, Itaas reportedly noticed that he was transacting with policemen, prompting him to run inside his house.

However, policemen were able to chase and corner the suspect.

Itaas is reportedly one of the target personalities of the police in the area.

Incidentally, as the policemen followed Itaas inside his house, they found Zabate reportedly about to sniff shabu. Zabate was also arrested.

The police confiscated 15 small packs of the illegal drugs from Itaas, which reportedly amounted to P12,000 as per Dangerous Drugs Board estimates, while they seized drug paraphernalia from Zabate.

Both suspects are now detained at Mambaling Police Station.

More than an hour later, a woman was arrested at a police checkpoint in Sitio Sindulan in Barangay Mabolo after police confiscated 10 sachets of shabu and drug paraphernalia from her.

Suspect Sotera Espanol, 49, was arrested by personnel of the Investigative and Detective Branch of the Cebu City Police Office, who were conducting checkpoint in the area in line with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings.

All four suspects will be facing charges for violating the Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002. —/NSA (FREEMAN)