THREE persons were arrested in police buy-busts in the Cities of Lapu-Lapu and Cebu yesterday.
In Lapu-Lapu, police arrested Philippe Anthony Pogoy, 33, in Purok Nangka Lumoy, Sitio Kinalumsan, Barangay Gun-ob at 4:30 a.m.
Pogoy was arrested after he allegedly handed over a sachet of suspected shabu worth P200 to a police decoy.
When frisked, Pogoy yielded 50 sachets and one medium sachet of shabu, two P100 bills and P500 believed to be proceeds from the illegal drug trade.
The Lapu-Lapu Criminal Investigation Branch said the seized drugs are valued at P47,672.
Pogoy said that he wanted to surrender to the police two weeks ago, but he failed to do so because he was waiting for the schedule of the barangay captain.
In Cebu City, two men were also arrested in a buy-bust in Sitio Narra, Barangay Inayawan.
Operatives from the Pardo Police Station arrested Cheryl Malinao, 28, and her live-in partner Melchor Catulpos, 55.
A decoy bought a pack of shabu from the couple that led to their arrest. Seized from Catulpos were 12 small packs of suspected shabu and two small packs from Malinao.
Catulpos said that he and Cheryl started selling drugs about four months ago.
Catulpos said that he and Cheryl were aware of the Oplan Tokhang campaign of the police force but they decided not to present themselves to the authorities.
He, however, thought of quitting the illegal drug trade for fear of his life.
Insp. Randy Caballes of Pardo Police Station told Sun.Star Cebu that since the start of the Oplan Tokhang, there have been a total of 80 pushers and 320 users who surrendered to them. Camille L. Pateres and Dan Henly Cuizon, USJ-R intern