BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO City – Another suspected big-time shabu supplier in the country’s top tourist destination, Boracay Island has been arrested.
Neslie Estropegan of Brgy. Feliciano, Balete, Aklan was busted in a sting operation conducted after two weeks of police surveillance.
She was a “high-value” suspect, said Senior Supt. Samuel Nacion, director of the Aklan Police Provincial Office (APPO).
Nacion’s men cornered Estropegan on Friday night in coordination with the Boracay Tourist Action Center (BTAC) in Brgy. Balabag, Boracay.
“She was our top priority this week. We received information that she was hoarding a big volume of shabu,” Nacion told Panay News in a telephone interview.
The suspect yielded 31 plastic sachets of shabu with a street value of P50,000.
Estropegan was the latest suspect arrested in a series of police operations targeting drug suspects in Boracay.
Just this June 18, three men from Iloilo were arrested in the island resort.
According to Nacion, the shabu from Estropegan was “so far our biggest seizure this week.”
“More drug personalities will be arrested,” vowed Nacion.
Director Paul Ledesma of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 6 previously said his men were monitoring Caticlan Port in Malay, Aklan – a possible transshipment point of illegal drugs.
The port is the jump-off point to Boracay.
A major port for roll-on roll-off vessels in Panay Island, ships from Luzon and Mindanao pass by the Caticlan Port.
Three months ago, Boracay policemen arrested a disc jockey for selling marijuana.
The 39-year-old Mike Collantes doubled as a marijuana dealer, according to the BTAC.
The suspect had long been under surveillance but he was too slippery to catch, said Senior Insp. Mark Evan Salvo, BTAC chief.
The buy-bust operation in Brgy. Balabag led to the seizure of dried marijuana leaves weighing a kilo and 260 grams.
Collantes, a resident of Las Piñas City, Metro Manila, worked at Wave Bar and Lounge. The police considered him as perhaps one of the biggest suppliers of marijuana in the island.
On the other hand, in the anti-drug operation two weeks ago the arrested suspects were Vincent Aldrick Checa David, 30, of Brgy. Infante, Molo, Iloilo City; Arvin Abaya, 20, of Carles, Iloilo; and Agustin Jubilag, 21, a tattoo artist from Dingle, Iloilo.
The arrests were carried out in front of Crafts de Boracay on Main Road, also in Brgy. Balabag.
According to the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Group, a poseur buyer bought a sachet of shabu worth P1,000 from the suspects./PN
