THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Negros Occidental believed that the two alleged members of the Divinagracia Drug Group who were killed in a gun battle with police and PDEA agents in Muntinlupa City over the weekend were only "newbies."
The operation in Muntinlupa yielded at least 10 kilos of shabu with a market value of P68 million.
Agent “Bamboo,” an operative for PDEA-Negros Occidental, said the two suspects, identified as Jordan Sabandal Abrigo and Jayvee De Guzman, were new to the group.
He showed evidence that Divinagracia had expanded his operations aside from Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.
Bamboo said 80 percent of the members of Divinagracia Drug Group in Negros Occidental have either already been killed or arrested, and at present, they are monitoring several drug suspects in the province who have links to the drug group.
The PDEA agent's statement also confirmed an earlier statement made by Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief General Guillermo Eleazar that aside from Western Visayas, some of the drugs from the Negrense drug group were reaching as far away as Mindanao.
Last week, Divinagracia was found dead in the town of Baras in Rizal province. The slain drug lord was believed to have been strangled to death with a steel wire, prior to being finished off with gunshots.
Divinagracia was the top most wanted drug suspect in Negros Occidental and had a bounty on his head amounting to P500,000.
The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office is currently investigating whether the drugs seized in Muntinlupa City were bound for Negros Occidental, as the drug group had been known to actively smuggle their illicit substance via roll-on/roll-off ferries at the Batangas Port.