AGENTS of the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PNP-DEG) hot on the trail of a Chinese drug trafficking syndicate using Filipinos, mostly from Mindanao, as their couriers in the country on Sunday afternoon arrested two more members of the ring who yielded three kilograms of shabu worth P20.4 million in Dasmariñas City in Cavite, PNP chief, General Debold M. Sinas announced yesterday.
“This is a follow-up to the PNP-DEG operation in Parañaque City last Saturday which led to the arrest of three drug couriers and the confiscation of eight kilos of shabu worth P54.4 million,” said Sinas.
Sinas said undercover officers of the PNP-DEG headed by Brigadier Gen. Ronald O. Lee arrested the two suspects identified as Ranier Reboriano,25; and Joshua Legazpi,34; both residents of Block 10, Lot 10, Tierra Vista, Langkaan 1 in Dasmariñas City during a buy-bust at 4:40 p.m. on Sunday.
Recovered from the suspects were three plastic packs each containing a green foil bag with Chinese tea markings loaded with a kilo of the so-called ‘poor man’s cocaine,’ the buy-bust money, a caliber .30 Carbine rifle with two loaded magazines and eight cal. .45 live ammunition.
Lee said members of the PNP-DEG Special Operations Unit 8 led by Major Arnulfo Ibañez conducted the sting with the assistance of the Cavite Police Provincial Office under Col. Marlon Santos and the Dasmariñas City Police Station under Lieutenant Col. Abraham Abayari.
Lee said the sting is part of their implementation of their Coplan: Blood Stone which aims to neutralize a group of jailed Chinese drug lords still operating their illicit drug business with the help of their Filipino contacts from Mindanao, Metro Manila and Calabarzon region.
During the operation, a PNP-DEG operative managed to buy a kilo of shabu from the suspects. Shortly after the agent signaled other members of the team that the deal had been consummated, officers stormed the suspects’ house where they recovered two more kilos of the prohibited substance.
The two are now being held at the PNP-DEG headquarters in Camp Crame and are facing non-bailable charges for sale and possession of prohibited drugs under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
On Saturday evening, PNP-DEG agents smashed a Mindanao-based drug trafficking ring following a buy-bust in Parañaque City which led to the seizure of P54.4 million worth of shabu, Sinas said.
The PNP chief said that arrested during the sting were two suspected couriers of the Mindanao-Metro Manila drug connection identified as Marlon Bayan, a 32-year old resident of Purok 6, Barangay Man-Ogob, San Vicente, Camarines Norte; and Guimalodin Ebrahim,27, a resident of Talitay, Maguindanao.
“An initial background check showed that the suspects were acting as regular couriers of shabu from Metro Manila to Mindanao,” Sinas said as he congratulated the PNP-DEG men for their latest accomplishment in their crackdown against so-called ‘high-value drug targets.’
The two were arrested by undercover operatives of the PNP-DEG SOU 8 during a sting near the vicinity of SM City Bicutan in Parañaque City 7 p.m. Saturday.
Recovered from the duo were around eight kilos of the so-called ‘poor man’s cocaine’ with a market value of P54,400,000 based on Dangerous Drugs Board present estimates on the price of prohibited drugs being sold per kilo in the market and the marked money paid to the two by the poseur.
A kilo of shabu regularly fetches a price of P6.8 million or around P6,800 per gram.
Lee said that they also seized a black Ford Ranger with plate no. NED 9942 used by the suspects to transport the illegal drugs.
Lee reported to Gen. Sinas that the arrest of the two ‘HVTs’ followed weeks of surveillance necessary under the conduct of their Coplan: Bloodstone’ which targeted contacts of jailed Chinese drug traffickers, many of them unscrupulous Mindanao residents based in the southern part of Metro Manila. The operation started early last November.
The two suspects are also facing non-bailable charges for sale and possession of prohibited drugs under RA 9165.
