A PASSENGER of a roll-on-roll-off (roro) vessel was arrested past 2 p.m. yesterday, September 14, at the Bredco Port in Bacolod City with more than 150 grams of suspected shabu valued at about P1 million.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) - Negros Occidental Seaport Interdiction Unit Head Agent Dalisay said Martial Delos Santos, 49, of Sitio Kaingin in Lapaz town, Iloilo was about to board the vessel when he was intercepted.
Agent Dalisay said Delos Santos refused to have his belongings scanned and was uneasy, prompting the members of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to separate him from the rest of the passengers.
He said that they let the K-9 dog sniff through Delos Santos’ belongings instead.
“The K-9 sat near his bag which indicated that a contraband was in there,” Agent Dalisay said, adding that when they asked Delos Santos to open it, they saw the contraband kept in a sock.
Prior to Delos Santos’ arrest, the PDEA agent noted that they received information from their counterpart in Iloilo that someone will travel with contraband to Dumangas town yesterday.
PDEA-Negros Occidental is still investigating the background of Delos Santos.
For his part, Delos Santos claimed that the items seized were owned by an unidentified man he met in Barangay Banago, Bacolod City earlier yesterday.
“The man asked me where I am from, I answered I am from Iloilo because I thought he was a policeman,” he said.
Delos Santos further alleged that the man told him that when he reaches Iloilo, someone will meet him there to receive the items and give him money.
On his way to the port, he said, another man whom he did not know accompanied him but the latter was nowhere to be found when he was already arrested.*