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[av_heading heading=’ODICTA’S 2 AIDES BUSTED
Bilibid drug lord, phone in seized notebook ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO and MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA
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ILOILO City – Authorities arrested two men they believed were trusted aides of slain drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. One of them may have ties to a drug lord at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila.
The 29-year-old Ken Mark Pineda, described as the right-hand man of Odicta, was caught in an entrapment in Barangay Quintin Salas, Jaro district.
Cops recovered from Pineda 15 big sachets of shabu worth P300 thousand on Tuesday.
Then yesterday, a suspected sub-group leader of Odicta was collared in Barangay Cagbang, Oton, Iloilo.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Oton police station joined forces to catch 50-year-old Marque “Boboy” Acap Sr. around 10:20 a.m.
According to Senior Inspector Mark Cordero, Molo police chief, Pineda – a resident of Barangay Infante, Molo district – had just returned from Las Piñas City with shabu supplies.
“Our asset contacted him to supposedly buy shabu. He agreed to meet our asset in Barangay Quintin Salas. There, we served his pending arrest warrant for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002,” Cordero said.
Pineda was collared around 4:30 p.m. inside a van where he intended to sell shabu to the police asset. His woman companion, the 28-year-old Lindsay Kay Po of Las Piñas City, was also arrested.
The police believed Pineda was poised to take over Odicta’s operation.
Odicta, known in police and PDEA circles as the drug lord “Dragon”, and wife Meriam were shot to death on Aug. 29 at the Caticlan jetty port in Malay, Aklan after disembarking from a roll on, roll off (roro) ship.
Police said Pineda also passed through the same jetty port in returning to Western Visayas from Metro Manila. They believed he got his shabu supply from Las Piñas.
BILIBID CONNECTION?
Meanwhile, PDEA and the Oton police described Acap Sr. as a convicted murderer who served time at the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.
They did not discount the possibility that he managed to establish ties with drug lords operating in the prison facility while in detention.
A notebook that the authorities recovered from Acap’s house contained the name “Colangco” and a cell phone number.
Just this July 7, President Rodrigo Duterte named Herbert Colangco as one of the biggest drug lords in the country. He was actually referring to Herbert Colanggo, a convicted leader of a notorious robbery group.
Colanggo is currently serving a life sentence at the national penitentiary but admitted this Tuesday during a House inquiry that he runs drug trafficking operations inside the New Bilibid Prison.
The police and PDEA ranked Acap No. 4 in their list of suspected drug personalities in Western Visayas.
“He was convicted for murder. Mahigit two years na siyang nakalabas sa New Bilibid Prison, nagka-parole,” said PDEA assistant regional director Levi Ortiz.
Citing intelligence information, Ortiz added, “Pagkalabas, nag-engage s’ya sa illegal drugs at naging sub-group leader siya ng Odicta drug group.”
An undercover police officer was able to buy a plastic sachet of shabu from Acap yesterday at the suspect’s house.
Also arrested yesterday were Acap’s son Marque Jr., 30; Avelino Revilla, 39, Barangay Lapuz Norte, La Paz district; Alexander Animas, 33, of Barangay Mohon, Arevalo district; and Ryan Patrick Garcia, 29, of Barangay Sta. Cruz, Arevalo.
Ortiz said Acap Sr. supplied Iloilo City and nearby municipalities with shabu.
Recovered during the buy-bust operation were 11 sachets of shabu, a weighing scale, a hand grenade, a KG9 submachine gun, two back-to-back magazines, one Ziplock containing 43 cartridges of .9mm pistol, a .38 revolver, and a black ammunition holder containing 15 cartridges of .38 caliber.
The five suspects were brought to the PDEA jail facility in Fort San Pedro, Iloilo City.
Ortiz considered Acap Sr.’s arrest a “malaking kawalan” (big loss) to the drug trafficking business in the city.
“Kasi nga No. 4 sa target list, malaking supplier siya,” he said.
Acap, however, was not listed in the drug report of the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council of Barangay Cagbang, Oton.
“Maraming natatakot sa kanya. He is notorious sa lugar nila,” said Ortiz./PN
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