• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A series of buy-bust operations in Negros Occidental over the weekend led to the confiscation of more than P1 million worth of suspected shabu from arrested drug peddlers.
On June 8, two suspects were apprehended in Sitio Felisa, Barangay Magticol, Toboso, which yielded 61 grams of shabu valued at 414,000, according to the police.
In the course of the operation, suspected drug peddler Albert Alico, 32, alias Nonoy Gahe, shot one of the operatives of Toboso Municipal Police Station, PSSgt. Ronie Melgar, who was hit in the right arm.
Alico fled but his two companions, alias Kempee, 45, and alias Aries, 30, were arrested.
Operatives also seized a caliber .45 pistol with two magazines containing 12 rounds of ammunition, 17 rounds of ammunition for caliber .22 firearm, cash worth P22, 650, assorted illegal drugs paraphernalia and P1,000 in marked money.
Melgar is being treated at a private hospital in Bacolod City.
On the same day, a businessman engaged in online selling and money lending and his companion were arrested at Purok Mahimayaon in Barangay Tabao, Valladolid by joint personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Valladolid Municipal Police Station.
The suspects yielded an estimated 60 grams of shabu worth P408,000.
Nine other drug suspects were arrested separately in the cities of San Carlos, Escalante and Sagay as well as in the municipalities of Calatrava, Ilog, Moises Padilla, Hinigaran and San Enrique.
In these operations, drug enforcement teams confiscated an estimated 35 grams of shabu worth more than P300,000. | GB
