POLICEMEN seized P7.6 million worth of suspected shabu in successive buy-busts at Barangays Banago and Singcang-Airport in Bacolod City on Sunday, June 5, 2022 and Monday, June 6, 2022, respectively.
Drug suspects Raffy Cardeñas, 37, of Purok Neptune in Barangay Singcang-Airport and Napoleon Begasa III, 30, of Purok Kawayan in Barangay Banago were also arrested.
Both men are considered by the authorities as high value individuals and sources of illegal drugs in the said barangays.
Cardeñas was arrested shortly before midnight on Monday, at Barangay Singcang-Airport’s Purok Neptune with 21 sachets of suspected shabu weighing 105 grams and valued at P714,000.
Police Station 8 commander Major Joerey Puerto said Cardeñas tried to evade arrest but accidentally fell in a roadside canal and sustained bruises.
Puerto said the suspect was arrested back in 2000 for illegal drug charges but he entered into a plea-bargaining agreement and was released from jail.
The police official also said that Cardeñas’ brother, whose name he did not disclose, is also into illegal drug trade.
On Sunday, Begasa, who is also known by the alias “Toto,” fell into the hands of the Bacolod City Police Office-Drugs Enforcement Unit (BCPO-DEU) in a buy-bust at his rented place at about 7 p.m.
BCPO-DEU team leader Lieutenant Joeven Mogato said they confiscated from the suspect 16 sachets containing suspected shabu and another five plastic bags also containin illegal substance weighing 1,010 grams and valued at P6,868,000, among others.
Mogato said this is the first time that Begasa was arrested for illegal drug peddling, adding that the source of the illegal drugs seized is from San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
“However, he (Begasa) does not know the supplier personally as he was only negotiating through a middle man,” Mogato said.
The police official also noted that the confiscated items had just arrived a few days ago.
Begasa can dispose of at least 200 grams of shabu in two weeks, he added.
Despite the recent confiscations of million pesos worth of illegal drugs in Bacolod, the highly-urbanized city is not “shabulized” according to a police official in Western Visayas.
The clarification was made by Police Regional Office (PR0) Western Visayas spokesperson Colonel Arnel Solis, stressing that these confiscations were results of information fed by civilians and intelligence reports.
Solis said that illegal drug problem in Bacolod City and the whole Negros Occidental is not yet alarming.
He said they receive information about the sources of these contrabands, but they are still going to validate it.
When asked if there are policemen involved in illegal drugs, he said there are no reports yet.
“Also, we do not have illegal drug laboratories in the region and maybe the items that were seized recently were old stocks,” the police official told SunStar Bacolod.
He also stressed that the Philippine National Police in the region continues to monitor existing drug groups in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.