POLICE arrested three suspected drug pushers in separate buy-busts in Cebu City and Consolacion town, where some P1.42 million worth of illegal drugs were seized.
In Barangay Tejero in Cebu City, Roger Banticel, 36, and Junmel Occur, 25, were arrested by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 in a buy-bust at 3:05 p.m. last Tuesday.
Police Supt. Fermin Armendarez III of the CIDG said the suspects are level two drug pushers who can dispose of 200 grams of shabu in the area every week.
The suspects were placed under surveillance for a week before the operation.
Police confiscated 80 grams of shabu worth about P944,000 and drug paraphernalia from the suspects.
In Barangay Polog in Consolacion, police arrested a suspected drug pusher, who yielded more than P400,000 worth of illegal drugs in a buy-bust yesterday dawn.
Senior Insp. Wilson Abot, the town police chief, identified the suspect as Randy Godines Gonzaga, a jobless 41-year-old.
Seized from the suspect were 19 packs of white crystals believed to be shabu.
The illegal drugs weighed 40.47 grams and it could fetch P477,000, according to the value set by the Dangerous Drugs Board.
Abot said the suspect was their top priority target because he is a level two drug pusher, who can dispose of 25 grams of shabu per week.
Gonzaga said he was forced to join the illegal drug trade because of poverty. He also claims that his child has an illness.
The suspect refused to say where he sourced his supply of illegal drugs.
Abot said that because the suspect is elusive, their surveillance on the latter lasted two months.
Aside from the suspected shabu, the team also confiscated the P200 bill used in the buy-bust, 10 rolled tin foil, a lighter and P2,300 in cash believed to be Gonzaga’s earnings.
Complaints for violating Sections 5 (selling of illegal drugs), 11 (possession of illegal drugs), and 12 (possession of drug paraphernalia) of the Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) will be filed against Gonzaga, Banticel and Occur.
Selling illegal drugs is a non-bailable offense and a conviction in court will send an offender to jail for the rest of his life.
