THE Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) has been monitoring prisoners who have been profiled as gun-for-hire members, as drug groups are reportedly using them in their operations.
This, after the MCPO received information from a pusher that some drug groups were helping to facilitate their fast release from the jail by posting their bail.
MCPO Director Julian Entoma said City Intelligence Branch operatives caught the pusher for selling shabu 17 days after the latter's release from jail.
Entoma said drug groups may be using the hitmen to kill their underlings or rivals, as his investigation had yet to confirm this.
The MCPO is coordinating with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in its investigation.
Entoma also said he did not want politicians running in the May midterm elections to use the hitmen.
"We have been doing our best to maintain peace and order in the city because we have been under fire because of the spate of killings in the city,” he said in Cebuano.
Suspected hitman Marc John Soco was shot dead in Sitio Superior, Barangay Looc on Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 20.
The victim, who was in the MCPO drug list, may have been shot by another hitman hired by a drug group.
Soco gained temporary liberty after he posted bail for his possession of drug paraphernalia case. He was caught in an anti-narcotics operation last week.
Entoma said they learned Soco was a hitman in Bohol when they checked his background.
Bohol police had tagged Soco as the suspect in the series of murders during the election season in 2016 and in drug-related killings.
Investigators learned that Soco transferred to another group after he failed to settle his debt with his old group.
Entoma urged Soco's family to cooperate with the investigation so they could arrest the culprits. (From FMD of SuperBalita Cebu, KAL)