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[av_heading heading=’ Prevendido ‘down line’ yields 128 shabu sachets ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Thursday, August 17, 2017
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ILOILO City – A drug pushing suspect arrested in a buy-bust operation of the police in Barangay Q. Abeto, Mandurriao district yielded 128 sachets of shabu.
The 22-year-old Joemar Mendoza of Barangay San Nicolas, La Paz district was a suspected member of the Prevendido drug group, according to Senior Inspector Kennith Bermejo of the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU).
Mendoza was taken to the Mandurriao police station after his arrest around 6:20 p.m. on Tuesday.
An RDEU operative was able to buy from the suspect a sachet of shabu for P1,000 and recovered 127 more valued at P150,000.
The RDEU placed Mendoza under surveillance after learning that the suspect had been released from the Iloilo District Jail in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo just this Aug. 1.
Mendoza was arrested last year in Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao. He was charged with visiting a drug den.
Citing intelligence information, Bermejo said the suspect used to get his supply from Barangay Bakhaw then lately from Barangay Desamparados, Jaro district.
“We are verifying reports that he’s a down line of suspected drug lord Richard Prevendido,” said Bermejo.
Prevendido is a resident of Barangay Bakhaw but he’s currently in hiding. He has a standing arrest warrant for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Mendoza, however, denied owning the shabu recovered from him. He claimed the sachets were “planted.”
“Bakit kami magpa-plant? Ang daming nakuha na shabu sa kanya, planted?” countered Bermejo.
The police officer said his operative’s exchange of text messages with the suspect would further prove the legitimacy of the buy-bust operation.
Mendoza was arrested a day after the visit of Philippine National Police’s Director General Ronald Dela Rosa.
“Mababa ang drug personalities n’yo na nag-surrender or nahuli. Dagdagan nyo pa,” he told Western Visayas policemen during a program marking the 116th Police Service Anniversary at the PRO-6 headquarters in Camp Delgado on Monday.
A total of 1,915 drug personalities have been arrested in the region since July last year after the Philippine National Police launched its Oplan Double Barrel, the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs. But Dela Rosa was not impressed.
“Step up. We have a lot to do. Double-time,” he said.
From July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2017, 20,598 drug personalities surrendered to police stations across the region, PRO-6 data showed.
The surrenders were a result of 430,424 house visitations that the police conducted in a bid to convince these drug personalities to change their ways.
In the 1,354 antidrug operations of the PRO-6 since July last year, 1,915 drug suspects were arrested and of these, 150 were considered high-value targets.
The operations also resulted to the death of 31 drug suspects. These casualties resisted arrested, according to the PRO-6./PN
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