Drug busts net four suspects, P388T shabu

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Police arrested a total of four suspects in three anti-illegal drugs operations in this city, from Tuesday through Thursday, and confiscated shabu items, worth a total of P388,000 based on Dangerous Drugs Board valuation.

Inspector Ryan Jay Orapa, head of the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group of the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office, said his team together with other agencies, arrested on Thursday two suspects, Claudette Gotual and her live-in partner Fritz Daryl Montiza.

The PAIDSOTG operatives were joined by members of the NOrPPO Public Safety Company, the SWAT, the Provincial Intelligence Bureau, headed by Senior Inspector Jamal Jamiri, and the PDEA in arresting the two suspects during a raid at Barangay Looc.

Gotual and Montiza were arrested after delivering a big sachet or bulto,of shabu to a poseur buyer, but their cohort, a certain Pelagio Zerna, managed to escape on a motorcycle, leaving behind the two suspects.

Armed with a search warrant issued by the court, the operatives, in the presence of village chief Angelita Ragay, raided Gotual’s house where they found four big packs of shabu, weighing 23.92 grams, worth an estimated P282,000 based on DDB valuation, Orapa said.

The day before, or on Wednesday, the police had also arrested Arnel Villancio of Bago City, who fell also after delivering shabu to a poseur buyer.

The suspects, who were in the target list of drug personalities, have been allegedly supplying shabu to Bayawan City, which is considered a big market along with Dumaguete.

On Tuesday evening, the PAIDSOTG men and the Dumaguete City police entrapped Dawn Divinagracia, a resident of Sibulan town, after delivering to a poseur buyer at Colon Street in this city two bultos of shabu, weighing 9.2 grams and worth P106,000 based on DDB valuation.

Orapa said Divinagracia was in the target list of drug personalities and tagged as Level 3 pusher for allegedly selling up to 200 grams of shabu per week.

Divinagracia, in an interview, however claimed she was merely asked by a woman whom she considered as her aunt to deliver the item, but she refused to identify the woman.

Meanwhile, the police reported that for the month of August, they had seized close to P8 million worth of shabu in Negros Oriental, via 24 buy-bust operations and 12 raids, and arrested 63 suspects. The aggregate value of shabu seized, from January to August this year, reached P14 million, said Orapa.  (FREEMAN)