Village official nabbed

CATARMAN, Northern Samar – A barangay official in Catubig, Northern Samar was nabbed after the police caught him allegedly in possession of suspected illegal drugs inside a bus in Catarman Monday afternoon.

Garret Lluz, 31, who identified himself to police as a village councilor in Purok 5 Catubig town, arrived from Manila aboard a Silver Star bus when operatives of the Provincial Special Operations Group (PSOG) halted him inside the Catarman Bus Terminal around 4:25 p.m. Monday.

Reportedly, the K9 dog of the police has sniffed something in Lluz’s baggage, which prompted the authorities to invite the suspect to the Northern Samar Police Provincial Office (NSPPO) for verification of his things.

Inside the NSPPO investigation office and in the presence of police provincial director Isaias Tonog and representatives from the provincial prosecutor, barangay officials and media, Lluz volunteered to open his baggage, which yielded some sachets of alleged methamphetamine hydrochloride commonly known as “shabu”.

The sachets of “shabu” were found tucked inside a folded shirt from the suspect’s baggage, some of which were wrapped in electrical tapes.

The police revealed its inventory list with a total of 21 sachets of suspected “shabu” from Lluz’s possession. They also confiscated the shirt, a Samsung mobile phone, a cellphone charger, batteries, memory card adaptors, and the bus ticket of the suspect.

Lluz, however, denied that the drugs belonged to him.

“I do not even know that there is something like that in my things. I don’t know how it got there,” Lluz said in an interview with LSDE.

Inspector Joseph Imperial, leader of the SPOG that conducted the raid, revealed that Lluz attempted to run away at the terminal.

That same day the councilor was subjected to a drug testing at the NSPPO Police Crime Laboratory Office. He was detained at the NSPPO lockup cell while the police filed for inquest before the provincial prosecutor’s office the following day.

The confiscated illegal drugs will be transported to the crime laboratory in Calbayog City for validation of its weight and content.

The police are filing charges against Lluz for possession and transport of illegal drugs under Section 5 of Republic Act 9165. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)