Thursday, August 12, 2004
Ex-army busted in drug raid
TWO suspected drug pushers, including a former Army man, were arrested in simultaneous raids yesterday.
The Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch (CIIB) and Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) conducted the anti-illegal drug operations.
Police identified the arrested suspects as Eugene Owatan, 30, and Leo Bontuyan, 34, an ex-army, both residents of Barangay Pit-os, Cebu City.
CIIB Chief Pablo Labra II, who led the raiding team, said Owatan and Bontuyan have been known pushers in the barangay for over a year now.
Owatan was arrested after the operatives found one big pack and three medium packs of alleged shabu.
There were also two empty plastic packs with traces of suspected shabu and assorted shabu sniffing and repackaging paraphernalia.
In Bontuyan’s house, police found two plastic packs of suspected shabu and sniffing paraphernalia.
The operatives simultaneously raided the houses of the two suspected drug pushers at 5:15 a.m. yesterday, based on search warrants issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Simeon Dumdum Jr.
Labra, in an interview, said the two were subjected to a one-month surveillance before the CIIB applied for search warrants against Bontuyan and Owatan.
Bontuyan and Owatan denied ownership of the confiscated evidence, implying that the authority planted the shabu taken from them.
Charges of possession of shabu have been filed yesterday against Bontuyan and Owatan. JST
(August 12, 2004 issue)
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