BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO City – Unlicensed firearms and shabu were seized from the house of a suspected drug peddler in Brgy. Zerrudo, Sara, Iloilo.
The 39-year-old Melvin Braga tried but failed to escape when operatives of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) conducted a buy-bust operation against him on Wednesday night.
The police recovered 18 sachets of shabu, a .45 pistol, a .9mm Ingram machine pistol, ammunitions and digital weighing scale.
Braga did not have a gun license, said Sara police chief, Senior Insp. Gilbert Archide.
Two others in Braga’s house at the time of the sting operation were also arrested – Roel de Asis, 28, and Jhonjie Asada, 20, both of Brgy. Aposaga, Sara.
Braga was a cousin of the man – Renante Braga – whom Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents arrested last month for P1.2-million worth of shabu.
Renante, 34, was a resident of Brgy. Bacabac, also in Sara. PDEA described him as the leader of an emerging drug ring in the province and the main source of shabu in northern Iloilo.
“We have so many high-value targets in northern Iloilo,” said Senior Supt. Cornelio Salinas, IPPO director.
For his part, PDEA Region 6 director Paul Ledesma said the arrest of the two Bragas was a “big boost” to the campaign against drug trafficking.
“It took us some time and considerable resources to finally catch them,” he said.
The “Baraga group” was a priority of PDEA. Ledesma said it was a “major player” in the illegal drug business in the province.
PDEA believes the group covers Sara, Estancia, Balasan, Concepcion, Ajuy, Barotac Viejo and almost all towns in the 5th District.
“We have established the source of their drugs through surveillance – Metro Manila,” said Ledesma./PN
