CASH-STRAPPED and in love, a 35-year-old trisikad driver allegedly resorted to a side job that attracted the attention of law enforcers—selling illegal drugs.

The reason behind suspect Jonard Nadal Cabando’s involvement in an unlawful activity was his 18-year-old girlfriend. He was helping to shoulder the cost of the girl’s studies, police said.

Cabando’s relationship could be in peril after he was caught in a drug bust in Sitio San Lorenzo, Barangay Jagobiao in Mandaue City past 10 p.m. on Monday, March 20, 2023.

He yielded 106 grams of a white substance that the police identified as shabu.

The contraband is worth P760,000, according to Mandaue City Police Station 3 chief Capt. Emmanuel Rabaya.

Rabaya said in an interview with SunStar Cebu that the suspect, a resident of Barangay San Roque in Cebu City, had allegedly supplied drugs in Jagobiao and its neighboring barangays in Mandaue City.

Police Station 3, he said, learned of Cabando’s activity after some of their prisoners had identified Cabando as the one who provided them with drugs.

Cabando allegedly started selling illegal drugs just last year, and he had no record of past arrests.

A complaint for violating Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, will be filed against the suspect.

Selling prohibited drugs is a non-bailable offense. (BBT / TPT, KAL)