"ARE they involved in the local illegal drug trade, too?"
This is the question that the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office (Nocppo) would like to answer as they investigate the backgrounds of the three residents of San Carlos City who were nabbed with billions of pesos worth of shabu in Pangasinan and La Union last week.
But Nocppo spokesperson Lieutenant Judesess Catalogo said over the weekend that Ritchelle Rupuesto, 28, and John Paul Repuesto, 18, as well as Jhon Berth Jago, 22, all residents of Barangay Codcon in San Carlos City, have not gone home for more than a year already.
Catalogo said the three have no criminal records at the San Carlos police and were not even included in the northern Negros Occidental city's illegal drugs personality watchlist.
He said the suspects' family claimed that they went to La Union and Pangasinan to work as drivers.
"They don't have any idea that they were involved in the illegal drug trade," Catalogo said.
Despite this, the Nocppo spokesperson said that this is just an isolated case and the illegal drug trade in San Carlos City is not yet on "critical level."
Ritchelle Rupuesto and Jago, along with Jensen Rey Yago and Chinese national Ke Wujia alias James Dagle, 40, residing at Agoo town, La Union, were arrested in a buy-bust operation by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Initially seized from them were five kilos of shabu worth P5 million.
Authorities discovered more blocks of shabu bundled in 18 sacks marked with Chinese tea "Guanyiwang" in the suspects' residence.
The recovered shabu totaled around 360 kilos, PDEA records show.
In the follow-up operation of PDEA and police in Barangay Poro, San Fernando, La Union, John Paul Repuesto was arrested with Romel Leyese of New East, Quezon City.
Forty kilos of shabu worth P272 million were recovered from Repuesto and Leyese in La Union.
PDEA Deputy Director General for Operations Rodrigo Pimentel, in an interview, said the suspects got their supply by smuggling it by sea into the Philippines.
The suspects would then repack the smuggled shabu in Pozorrubio town, and send it to customers outside Pangasinan through a technique called dead-drop, he added.
Apparently, the suspects would purchase used cars and leave them at the designated area, with the shabu inside the car, placed under blankets, and junk foods as cover.
In Cebu, authorities arrested a 35-year-old resident of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental for selling illegal drugs worth P7.4 million in Toledo City's Barangay Das on Saturday night, August 13.
Police Staff Sergeant Fredenil Cabañero, desk officer of the Toledo City Police Station, identified the suspect as Raffy Hermona, who originally hails from Sitio Cotcot, Barangay Mabini, Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.
Chavez is considered a high-value individual and listed as a top target in the regional level.
Hermona was arrested by a joint team of the Police Intervention Unit and Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit of the Cebu Provincial Police Office led by Lieutenant Colonel Dennis De Guzman.
He was arrested in his house around 7 p.m. where the police recovered 1.1 kilos of shabu worth P7,484,828, P1,000 in marked money, P3,000 in cash believed to be proceeds from the illegal drug trade, and drug paraphernalia.
Hermona faces charges for violating Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. (With reports from PNA/TDE)