AN EX-CONVICT returned to prison after he was arrested during a buy-bust on A. Lopez Street, Barangay Labangon, Cebu City, at 9:58 p.m. Thursday, August 29, 2024.
The anti-illegal drug operation was carried out by operatives of Labangon Police Station that resulted in the arrest of Reynaldo Repaso Cabatino alias Ekot, 54, of Sitio Micabaja, Barangay Duljo Fatima, Cebu City.
Seized from the suspect was a green pouch containing seven packs of substance believed to be shabu weighing 20.2 grams and with a standard drug price of P137,360.
Around 11 p.m., Cabatino's cohort, 30-year-old Gerry John Sarsona Caballero of Gochan Street, Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City, was also taken into police custody following a complaint that he was carrying a firearm.
Taken from Caballero were a .38 revolver and a pack of shabu.
According to Chief Major Eraño Regidor of the Labangon Police Station, Caballero served as a drug runner for Cabatino.
Regidor said that Cabatino is the owner of the firearm used by Caballero.
Regidor revealed that Cabatino was previously detained at the Cebu City Jail for a similar offense.
While in prison, he was appointed as jail cell “mayor.”
But after he was freed, the police discovered during their surveillance that he had resumed selling illegal substances; as a result, a buy-bust was executed.
The two drug cohorts are now detained at the Labangon police station’s holding cell. (AYB/TPT)