BY CYRUS GARDE and RANIE AZUE
BACOLOD City – Six kilos of suspected shabu were recovered in a drug buy-bust operation past midnight yesterday in Barangay Palampas, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) estimated the seizure’s value at P40 million. The San Carlos City police station, on the other hand, placed it at P72 million.
The suspected illegal drugs were contained in six tape-sealed plastic pouches weighing one kilogram each.
The targets of the sting operation, however, evaded arrest.
Couple Armando and Josephine Paraquelles and Ronnie “Putot” Recomo ran to a nearby sugarcane field upon sensing that they were transacting with an undercover officer, leaving a bag that contained the suspected shabu, according to the San Carlos City police.
Authorities were still hunting them as of this writing.
Joint elements of PDEA regions 6 and 7, the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit, Provincial Intelligence Unit, San Carlos City police, and the 12th and 79th Infantry Battalions of the Philippine Army staged the operation around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
San Carlos City police head D’ Artagnan Katalbas Jr. said Recomo and the Paraquelleses were newly identified drug suspects.
They sourced their illegal drug supply from Manila transported through roll-on, roll-off vessels from Cebu, he added.
Katalbas also said the suspects were residents of the village, citing their familiarity of the terrain that helped them escape.
Aside from the suspected shabu, authorities also recovered a Skygo motorcycle and a cellphone owned by the suspects.
It was the second operation in San Carlos City this year that led to the confiscation of illegal drugs worth over a million.
On Jan. 23, shabu weighing 593.532 grams worth about P6.8 million was recovered from drug suspect Christian Unabia, 29, also in Barangay Palampas.
Yesterday’s operation was also the first for PDEA Region 6 under new director Emerson Margate.
On Aug. 6 when he formally assumed office, Margate vowed to focus on areas with a history of rampant drug trafficking such as Negros Occidental and Boracay Island in Aklan province.
Margate said a group in Negros Occidental must be neutralized. But he did not identify the group./PN
