Suspected shabu dealer arrested in drug buybust

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – Operatives from various law enforcement agencies arrested 47-year-old Isaac Torres Gara, of Barangay Taclobo, a suspected big-time illegal drugs distributor in this city.

Inspector Janelito Marquez, of the Provincial Anti-illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (PAIDSOTG), said confiscated from Gara were two large heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets or “bolto” containing white substance believed to be methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu in granules and powder form.

The street value of a “bolto” of shabu is pegged at P27,000, said Marquez.

Shortly after midnight Wednesday, joint elements of the PAIDSOTG, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Dumaguete Police swooped down on Gara at purok Kawayan in Taclobo during a drug buybust operation.

Gara was arrested while in the act of selling shabu to an undercover agent, and was witnessed by a representative of the Department of Justice, a member of the local media and a barangay official.

Marquez said Gara was under tight surveillance for over a week now after reports reaching authorities said he was allegedly peddling drugs to students in the vicinity of two tertiary schools in the eastern part of the city.

The suspect claimed in an interview with reporters that he sourced shabu from a supplier based in Cebu and the person who financed his operations here was a certain Mario from Dumaguete who was earlier convicted of illegal drugs pushing and is now inside the national prison facility in Muntinlupa, Metro Manila.

Law enforcement agencies believed they were able to neutralize another loose group of illegal drugs peddlers following the arrest of Gara, Marquez said.  – THE FREEMAN