3 nabbed for selling P1.3-million cocaine

MANILA, Philippines –  Three suspected drug peddlers were arrested in Las Piñas City for allegedly possessing P1.3 million worth of cocaine Friday night.

Chief Inspector Raymund Liguden, chief of the Pasay City police’s investigation division, identified the suspects as Ed Villanueva, Cyril Montes, and Lowin Gesite. The three, particularly Montes, were alleged members of the Samar drug syndicate, according to Liguden.

Their arrest took place at a gasoline station along Real street in Barangay Pulang Lupa Uno about 8:45 p.m. Friday. Confiscated from them were three bricks of cocaine worth P1.3 million.

Liguden told The STAR that the deal between their asset and the group was closed Friday morning at a restaurant in Pasay City. They were initially set to meet at a fastfood chain, also in Pasay, at about 5:30 p.m. when Villanueva changed the venue to Las Piñas.

Liguden’s 12-man team accosted Villanueva after receiving the P450,000 marked money for a kilo of cocaine. This led to the arrest of the two other suspects, who yielded two more kilos of cocaine. The three men denied the allegations.

According to Liguden, the cocaine sold by the suspects were part of a shipment dumped by a foreign vessel passing through the waters off Eastern Samar last December.

Liguden said local police need financial support to carry out operations against drug peddlers. He said they even had to borrow money from businessmen before they could produce the P450,000 demanded from their undercover agent.

“Unlike the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency or the AIDSOTF (the police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations TaskForce), we don’t have any budget. We were lucky, that some businessmen agreed to lend us money out of trust,” Liguden said.