MORE than P7 million worth of illegal drugs were confiscated by anti-illegal drug operatives in two separate operations in Barangays Duljo-Fatima and Mambaling in Cebu City on Friday, Feb. 1.
Operatives of the Regional Drug Enforcement Group (RDEG) 7, led by Supt. Glenn Mayam, and the Abellana Police Station, led by Chief Insp. Eduardo Sanchez, arrested Alvin Sagura Bicada, 32, and John Joe Casquejo de Leon, 35, in Barangay Duljo-Fatima around 9 p.m.
Bicada, a dishwasher, was considered a “high-value drug target.”
Police recovered from the two suspects 19 packs of suspected shabu with a combined weight of 1,015 grams. The drugs had an estimated market value of P6.8 million.
Initially, the Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) of the Abellana Police Station conducted a buy-bust against Bicada by sending one of their officers to buy a pack of shabu worth P250,000 from him.
But Bicada fled when he sensed the person he was transacting with was a police officer.
DEG operatives, led by Sanchez, coordinated with the RDEG 7 to hunt Bicada down.
It was during the follow-up operation that they cornered Bicada at his house.
Upon his arrest, Bicada reportedly told police he kept his drug supply at de Leon’s house in the same barangay.
De Leon was arrested a few minutes later.
“Heir apparent”
Recovered from de Leon were the packs of suspected shabu.
In an interview, Sanchez said they had been monitoring Bicada’s movements after they received information that he took over the illegal drug selling business of his older brother after the latter was arrested and jailed last year.
“We arrested his older brother in a buy-bust back in March. With his older brother in jail, he (Bicada) eventually took over. We believe the source of the drugs is inside the Cebu City Jail while he (Bicada) contacts the source through a cellular phone,” Sanchez said in Cebuano.
A few hours earlier, anti-illegal drug operatives of the Mambaling Police Station arrested Jeahs Rosello, 40, during a buy-bust in Sitio Mabapo, Barangay Mambaling.
Recovered from Rosello were eight medium packs of suspected shabu worth P306,000.
According to police, Rosello is the half-brother of the live-in partner of Sharmaine Porras, a survivor of the Malubog incident in which five persons were shot dead by unidentified assailants.
Rosello’s two brothers have been detained at the Cebu City Jail on illegal drug charges. (from AYB of Superbalita, JKV)