Ex-guard yields P14 million shabu  

CEBU, Philippines —  A buy-bust operation in Sitio Puntod, Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City, Thursday night led to the confiscation of over 2 kilos of shabu worth P14 million.

It was not the first arrest of Kenneth "Jun" Tapaya, 23, of Sitio Zone 6 Engaño Gamay, Barangay Buaya, Lapu-Lapu City, as he got imprisoned for an unspecified offense two years ago.

Police Major Jonathan Beethoven Taneo, Mambaling Police Station chief, said Tapaya, a former security guard, sourced his supply from somebody inside the Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunasan.

Taneo said that after conducting a two-week surveillance and confirming Tapaya's illegal activity, members of the station's Drug Enforcement Unit laid a trap on the suspect.

The police set a buy-bust operation on Tapaya Thursday night and immediately put him under arrest after the transaction. In all, the police seized from Tapaya 2,050 grams of white crystalline substance believed to be shabu.

Taneo said they believed Tapaya got recruited into the illegal drugs trade during his incarceration two years ago.

After his arrest, Tapaya alleged that he was promised a share of the sale by a person who called him and instructed to deliver the illegal drugs to a customer, who turned out to be a policeman.

He claimed the drugs were sourced from someone inside the city jail and were to be distributed not only in Mambaling but in the neighboring barangays as well.

Taneo said Tapaya could dispose of 500 to 700 grams of shabu each week in barangays Mambaling and Basak San Nicolas as well as the neighboring areas of the city.