BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO City – The happy days of the suspected top drug dealer in Estancia, Iloilo came to an end at 10:30 a.m. yesterday.
The 43-year-old Ian Rex Espino fell in a police dragnet in his own house in Barangay Bayoyan.
He had been an elusive police target for many months, said Estancia police chief, Senior Insp. Lorenez Losaria.
Espino was arrested in a raid. The search warrant was issued by Judge Danilo Balagtas of the Municipal Circuit Trial Court.
Recovered from the suspect’s house were eight sachets of shabu and shabu-sniffing paraphernalia.
The house search also yielded six other suspects who had just finished sniffing shabu, as evidenced by empty sachets of shabu found in the same room.
They were Ian Gomez, 37; Jay De Andres, 42; Noel Cornelio, 42; Jovic Billnes, 35; Arnel Vasquez, 32; and Vivian Elminso, 22, all of said place.
“He is the top drug dealer in our area. In fact, he has been our target for a long time but he is too slippery,” Losaria said.
“Espino used his house as a drug den,” Losaria said.
They are now detained at the cell of Estancia’s police station./PN
