Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Boy, 17, arrested for carrying drugs
TWO drug suspects, one a minor from Ozamiz City, were arrested by authorities in separate operations yesterday morning.
Noel P. Tortor, 28, of Sitio Lawis, Barangay Pasil, Cebu City was just arrested for betting on an illegal bingo fruit machine game in an abandoned house past 10 a.m.
A routine “spot body search,” however, placed him in deep trouble after policemen found a black film canister in the right front pocket of his short pants.
Inside the container were 43 sachets of white crystalline substance believed to be shabu.
At first, Tortor admitted engaging in the illegal drug trade since last month, adding that each pack costs P100.
Moments later, he said he had stopped selling illegal drugs, and denied owning the evidence seized from him.
Same person
In a press conference yesterday, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comenda-dor identified Tortor as the drug suspect who accused four policemen of extortion attempt last November.
PO2s Bernabe Alegado and Tremaine Sotto, and PO1s Christopher Torregosa and Emmanuel Victor Blones, formerly assigned with the Fuente Osmeña Police Station, allegedly caught him concealing a deadly weapon and with a pack of shabu.
But the four policemen were relieved from their posts for operating outside their area of responsibility and for the allegation.
Comendador told reporters that during Tortor’s arrest yesterday, his men did not know yet that he was the same person Alegado and company tangled with last November.
Saturation drive
Policemen led by Supt. Pablo Labra II, CCPO deputy director for operations, and Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) Chief George Ylanan were in Pasil yesterday for a saturation drive against all forms of illegal activities when they chanced upon Tortor.
PO2 Regalado de la Victoria, a CIIB operative, was the one who recognized Tortor, as he was the one who fetched him from the Fuente Osmeña detention cell last November for transfer to the CCPO stockade at Camp Sotero Cabahug.
In neighboring Mandaue City shortly before Tortor’s arrest, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 agents also arrested a 17-year-old teenager for possessing 25 grams of suspected shabu.
The minor was from Ozamiz and had just disembarked from a ship around 10 a.m. when accosted at Pier 7. He was immediately presented before Mayor Jonas Cortes.
A team led by FO2 Rey Ford Yap handcuffed the minor, whose identity was withheld, right after he stepped down from the gangplank of mv Butuan Bay.
PDEA civilian employee Jessie Tabanao said their informant had called up the suspect to deliver 100 grams of shabu to them in Cebu.
It was agreed that the drugs will be bought at P250,000 though its street value is P300,000.
But when Butuan Bay was about to dock, the suspect allegedly communicated with their informant, who was waiting at the pier area, that he only had 25 grams with him.
When the informant spotted the suspect, he signaled for the PDEA personnel, who immediately accosted the minor following a body search that yielded the illegal drugs.
But since the suspect is still covered by the Juvenile Justice and Welfar Act of 2006, he was turned over to the Mandaue City social welfare office while the PDEA is preparing a criminal complaint against him.
Tortor, though, was back in the CCPO stockade, and will be charged for illegal drugs possession and be facing a complaint for violating the anti-illegal gambling law.
Labra’s team also confiscated six assorted gambling machines, which were turned over to the City Government for safekeeping, during their operation. (JST/OCP)
