Two suspects arrested cops seize guns, P242T shabu

Dumaguete City , Philippines— Police authorities scored again in their campaign against the illegal drug trade with the arrest of two suspected drug pushers and the confiscation of shabu and illegal firearms at Barangay Looc in this city.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Gerardo Paquio Jr., the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Group, the Provincial Intelligence Branch, Philippine Drug Enforcement Administration and the Dumaguete City Police, assisted by the SWAT, swooped down at the residence of the suspects in a heavily congested area of the barangay.

Inspector Ryan Jay Orapa, chief of the PAID-SOTG, identified the suspects as Diosdado Chavez, alias Andok, of Zone 4 and Jessie Gardoce, alias Nonoy, of Zone 1, all in Looc. One other suspect, Diosdado's wife Darren, managed to escape through the backdoor along with a girl, believed to be her daughter.

Operatives seized from the house of the Chavez couple shabu, valued at P242,000 (based on the Dangerous Drugs Board rates), two unlicensed .357-caliber Magnum guns with four rounds of ammunition, two sticks of marijuana cigarettes, a digital weighing scale, cellphones and other paraphernalia.

Diosdado was the first to be arrested and, five minutes later in a separate operation, operatives arrested Gardoce in a buy-bust operation also in Looc where he allegedly sold shabu to a police undercover agent.

Both Diosdado and Gardoce insisted they were innocent and the items seized from them were not theirs.

Superintendent James Goforth, Dumaguete Police chief, said the suspects have a history of previous arrests related to the illegal drugs trade and illegal firearms.

Orapa said the Chavez couple is considered general coordinator in the area, receiving kilos of shabu from a source in Muntinlupa. They placed Chavez in the "order of battle" for being a level-2 drug personality, and whose name came out as a result of previous arrests made by PAID-SOTG.