ILOILO City – Bacolod City has now become the main source of shabu in this city and Iloilo province, according to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
The neutralization these past two years of many high-profile and big-time drug personalities who sourced shabu from outside the region resulted to a drop in the volume of the illegal drug in Iloilo, said Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director.
He cited the deaths of drug lords Melvin Odicta Sr. (shot to death by unidentified armed men on Aug. 29, 2016 in Barangay Caticlan, Malay, Aklan) and Richard Prevendido (shot to death by policemen on Sept. 1, 2017 in Barangay Balabago, Jaro district) and the subsequent arrest of their underlings.
“Wala na tayong malalaking droga na mahuli dito kasi neutralized na ang mga grupo dito. Kung may mahuli man tayo kakaunti na lang at mga newly identified pa sila,” said Bulalacao.
The campaign against illegal drugs, however, would remain non-stop, he stressed.
Most of the arrested drug personalities in Iloilo revealed their drug sources were Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, said Bulalacao.
“Bacolod City and Negros Occidental are near Cebu, Negros Oriental and Mindanao. Our antidrug enforcement unit’s operations are thus focused on Bacolod and Negros,” said the police director.
The Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) of the PRO-6 said the antidrug campaign constricted the entry shabu in Western Visayas, resulting to a drop in supply that in turn affected its price – from between P8,000 to P10,000 per gram last year, shabu now cost P12,000 per gram.
“The neutralization of the Odicta and Prevendido groups contributed to the slowdown of shabu distribution in the region, particularly Iloilo,” said Senior Inspector Kennith Bermejo, RDEU chief.
Last week, two drug pushing suspects were killed by policemen. Forty-year-old Richard Gregori, 40, of Barangay Ungka 2, Pavia, Iloilo fired at policeman during a buy-bust operation on Aug. 29. Two days earlier, on Aug. 27, 52-year-old Alex Blanca died of multiple gunshot wounds in a buy-bust operation at his house in Barangay Boulevard, Molo, Iloilo City. He tried to shoot an undercover police officer, according to Bermejo./PN
