Cops nab Navotas’ alleged No. 1 pusher

Operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Northern Field Office (CIDG-NFO) and the Metro Manila Drug Enforcement Group (MMDEG) arrested an alleged notorious drug trafficker operating in the northern metropolis and four others last Wednesday in Navotas.

Superintendent Gene Ines Abrajano, CIDG-NFO chief, identified the suspects as Marcelo Bernardo, 34; his older brother Rolando, 40; Eduardo Andres, 32; Alberto Cruz, 27, and Federico de la Cruz, 24, all of Barangay Sipac, Navotas.

Police records show that Bernardo, alias Donu Fernando, is the number one suspected drug pusher in Navotas and is ranked number seven in the Northern Police District’s (NPD) list of 10 notorious drug traffickers in the northern part of Metro Manila.

The police, with the assistance of the Civilian Volunteers Against Crime, armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Benjamin Aquino of the Malabon Regional Trial Court, swooped down on the suspects’ lair at Tabing Dagat, San Rafael Street, Barangay Sipac, Navotas at about 5:30 a.m.

The suspects were reportedly repacking 52 grams of shabu when the police pounced on them, Inspector Eddie Regalado, chief of the MMDEG north sector, said.

Bernardo’s brother, Narciso, alias Tibo Fernando, ranked number eight on the NPD’s wanted list, eluded arrest by jumping out of the window.

Regalado added that Bernardo, subject of MMDEG’s "Oplan Big Bertha" headed by Superintendent Nicasio Radovan, also the subject of CIDG-NFO’s Coplan "Puting Bato," had been arrested at least five times before for drug related offenses but always got out of jail on bail.

The suspects, interviewed in their cell at the CIDG-NFO, refused to give any comment.

On top of the NPD list of notorious drug traffickers is a brother of an active high-ranking police official, while ranked number two is a controversial scion of a powerful local politician.

Meanwhile, couple Dioscoro Bueles, 35, and Melanie Pagara, 22, were arrested Tuesday after reportedly handing over five sachets of shabu to a police agent during a buy-bust operation along Kadima street, Letre Road, Malabon City at about 2:30 p.m.

Police also seized from the duo 19 empty plastic sachets used for repacking shabu, 25 pieces of rolled aluminum foil, a tooter, an improvised lamp and four cigarette lighters. Charges were filed against the suspects.

Meanwhile, a 33-year-old housepainter, who allegedly raped his 12-year-old stepdaughter was arrested by the police yesterday in Caloocan City after the victim’s mother found out her daughter was five months pregnant.

Records showed the child is a sixth-grader and is residing with her mother in Barangay Palanan, Makati City.

The Women’s and Children’s Desk said suspect Roland Esmillo, single, the victim’s mother’s alleged live-in partner and a resident of 300 Don Benito Street, 5th Avenue, Grace Park, Caloocan City, has been detained at the city police detention center.

Initial investigation showed the alleged rape occurred sometime in June this year when the victim’s mother once left the victim temporarily in the care of the suspect as she worked at night in a bar in Caloocan City as a waitress.

The suspect reportedly threatened to harm the child and her mother if she squealed about the rape.

The victim kept the order to herself until she could no longer hide her condition and tearfully told her mother about the rape.

The suspect consistently denied the allegation, saying he could not do such a dastardly act. – Pete Laude and Jerry Botial