BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Negros Occidental foiled another attempt to smuggle P1-million worth of suspected shabu to Iloilo via the BREDCO port here on Sunday, Sept. 25.
Authorities identified the suspect as 36-year-old Rhemhon Dumancas, a resident of Barangay Patlad, Dumangas, Iloilo.
PDEA-Negros Occidental deputy provincial officer “Agent Bamboo” said Dumancas refused to be scanned at the BREDCO roll-on/roll-off terminal, and instead went to the comfort room and threw away a plastic bag in the garbage bin.
The PDEA agents, however, followed Dumancas and when they checked the garbage bin, they discovered two knot-tied bags of suspected shabu.
The agents immediately arrested Dumancas on the spot.
Agent Bamboo said the seized illicit substance weighed 150 grams and valued at P1,020,000.
Dumancas, meanwhile, claimed that he went to Bacolod City after receiving a call saying he had to pick up a package.
Upon arrival in the city, he said he went to a popular shopping mall and picked up the dropped off package at the mall’s comfort room.
He further claimed he did not know that the package contained a plastic bag of suspected shabu.
Dumancas was detained at the city’s Police Station 2, facing illegal drugs charges.
Earlier this month, PDEA agents and the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG) K-9 unit also intercepted an Iloilo-bound shipment of suspected shabu worth P1 million.
The suspect, Marcial Delos Santos Jr. of La Paz, Iloilo City, was arrested after he also refused to have his bag checked at the terminal’s x-ray scanner, and a subsequent search performed by the PDEA and the PCG’s drug-sniffing dogs revealed he was carrying 150 grams of suspected shabu hidden inside a pair of socks.
PDEA, PCG, and the Bacolod City Police Office are all on heightened alert against the entry of illegal drugs ahead of the city’s celebration of the MassKara Festival next month./PN
