AN ALLEGED member of the disbanded Vertucio group and his runner were arrested in a buy-bust in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental on Wednesday afternoon, October 5, 2022.

Lieutenant Colonel Jesus Mesahon, chief of San Carlos City Police Station, said they have been monitoring Vertucio gang member Jordan Alquizalas, 31, of Araneta Street in the city’s Barangay 3, for several months.

Mesahon said Cesar Pasilan, 54, of Fatima Village in the city’s Barangay Rizal, is listed as a Street Level Individual (SLI) and serves as Alquizalas’ runner.

He noted that the suspects were apprehended after one of them transacted to sell sachets of suspected shabu to a poseur buyer in exchange for P4,000.

Some 16 plastic sachets containing suspected shabu weighing 50 grams and valued at P340,000, a digital weighing scale, an empty plastic sachet with traces of the banned substance and several drug paraphernalia were seized from the suspects upon their arrest, police records showed.

San Carlos City Police personnel are still investigating the source of the items being sold by the suspects, who are now detained and are facing charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.