Hilongos cops nab the 7th of 13 in drug list

HILONGOS, LEYTE, Philippines  – The town police, together with operatives from the Provincial Special Operations Group (PSOG), finally nailed down yesterday the 7th man of the 13 suspected drug dealers in the list of wanted men.

Chief Insp. Ramil Ngujo Amodia, chief of the Hilongos Police, and the PSOG operatives, led by Sr. Insp. Daryll Chua, staged a buy-bust operations and caught Ricardo Naul, a resident of Barangay San Roque of this town.

Naul, also known as Ricky Secat, was about to board his motorcycle when arrested. He denied selling illegal drugs but he had with him the P500 marked money from the poseur-buyer and the two sachets of shabu during the apprehension.

Naul was not only known to the public and the authorities for his illegal trade, but was also for his slickness from the police. Chua said his men were posted in the area three days before to effect the buy-bust and the arrest.

The suspect even tried to namedrop some influential people when arrested, said Chua, who described Naul as “tricky and master of the trade.”

Amodia, for his part, acknowledged to The FREEMAN the evading skill of Naul. “At times, he hides the illegal drugs inside dressed chicken to mislead us,” he said, adding that he had to make sure that all evidences are there to pin Naul down for good.

“We have to go three levels down so that our officer-poseur-buyer can penetrate,” said Amodia who brought the suspect to Tacloban City for laboratory procedures, and later on for the filing of drug charges.

Mayor Jose Emery Roble had ordered the police to neutralize the top 13 drug suspects in the police list, which he himself had provided to the police for priority action.

“At this stage, the volume and amount of the illegal drugs seized may matter less. The police under my leadership will continue to implement the directive of the mayor to get rid of drugs off the streets of Hilongos,” Amodia added.

So far, the police was able to arrest seven from the list, three of them within December. (FREEMAN)