ILOILO City – An elder brother of slain drug lord Richard Prevendido was arrested for the second time in four years in a buy-bust operation of the police.
Will the police agree again to a plea bargain that in 2019 resulted to the release from prison of Abelardo Prevendido of Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao district?
The 65-year-old drug suspect was arrested on Feb.12 in Barangay Desamparados, Jaro district four years after his arrest also in a buy-bust operation on Aug. 23, 2016 in Barangay Bakhaw.
Operatives of the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Drug Enforcement Agency seized from Prevendido five sachets of suspected shabu after the suspect sold a sachet to an undercover police officer for P3,000.
In the 2016 sting, the police confiscated from Prevendido four sachets of suspected shabu with an estimated street value of P12,000. He was charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 but in 2019 entered into a plea bargain.
“After his release in 2019 he returned to his illegal activity. He was the supplier in Jaro, especially in Barangay Desamparados,” said Police Major Marlon Valencia, Mandurriao police chief.
Police sources said it would be difficult for Prevendido to plea bargain again, this being his second time to be arrested for a similar offense.
The suspect, detained at the Jaro police station after his arrest in Barangay Desamparados, has also been classified by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as a high-value target.
Prevendido’s brother Richard was killed in a shootout with the police in Barangay Balabago, Jaro on Sept. 1, 2017.
Their sister Remia Prevendido Gregori, former barangay captain Barangay Bakhaw, was herself a drug suspect and shot to death by armed men on June 24, 2018 in San Joaquin, Iloilo.
On Feb. 24, 2019 another brother, Norberto – a former barangay kagawad (village councilman) of Bakhaw and classified a high-value target, was arrested, too, in a buy-bust operation after selling to an undercover police officer a sachet of suspected shabu for P4,000.
Another sachet of suspected shabu valued at P80,000 was recovered.
The buy-bust was carried out by the City Drug Enforcement Unit. But Norberto ddenied owning the sachets that the cops supposedly confiscated from him./PN
