NBI seizes illegal drugs worth P800,000

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation has seized more than P800,000 worth of various dangerous, as well as illegal drugs, being sold or distributed illegally during different operations in April this year, a high-ranking official of the bureau said yesterday.

During a press conference held at the NBI headquarters in Manila, Deputy Director for Intelligence Services lawyer Ruel Lasala, chief of the Intelligence Services of the NBI, said during the re-intensified campaign against drug trafficking, four suspects were arrested during separate buy-bust operations in Metro Manila in April by the NBI-Anti-Illegal Drugs Task Force (NBI-AIDTF).

Arrested in separate incidents this month were Stuart Albert, 45, an Italian-American and former security officer from Boca Raton, Florida, United States; Jobert Gomba, alias Boy Illado, of Las Piñas City; and couple Faisal Disomnong and Mariam Sabino, of Phase 12 Talon, Caloocan City.

Lasala said the four have been charged before the Department of Justice for violation of RA 9165, otherwise known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The four suspects are detained at the NBI jail in Taft Avenue, Manila.

 A report, submitted to NBI Director Nestor Mantaring, said Albert is in the Philippines working as a call center agent.

The NBI received an intelligence report that Albert was peddling a drug called Oxycodone Hcl to tourists frequenting bars in Makati City. A surveillance was conducted by the NBI-AIDTF. Albert was identified after he was spotted transacting with several expatriates. An NBI informant was able to purchase from the suspect several tablets of Oxycodone tablets, a kind of pain reliever, at P200 each. Albert is not an authorized dealer of the drug which needs prescription, said the NBI. Oxycodone has similar effects with morphine and heroin, said the NBI.

On April 9, Albert was arrested during a buy-bust operation along Banuyo St., San Antonio Village, Makati. Seized from Albert were 84 pieces of Oxycodone Hcl tablets with a street value of about P20,000.

In Pasay City, the NBI said high-grade cocaine was being sold by Gomba and cohort Gilbert Capoquain Llado, 45, a former bodyguard of a local politician, and resident of Las Piñas City. The NBI said the cocaine being sold by Gomba was part of the recovered drugs taken by fishermen from the shores of Northern Samar. An NBI-AIDTF poseur-buyer, in April 14, met with Gomba inside a fastfood restaurant in Baclaran. Gomba was arrested for transacting 135.9401 grams of high-grade cocaine worth P675,000. The current street price of high-grade cocaine is P5 million a kilo, the NBI said in its report.