Two men were arrested in a police buy-bust that yielded two kilograms of suspected shabu, valued at P13.6 million, in San Esteban Village Phase III in Bago City, Negros Occidental on Thursday afternoon, March 14.
A report of the Police Regional Office in Western Visayas identified the suspects as Radney Pidol, 38; and Raphy Pradilla, 28, both of Barangay Lantad, Silay City. A third suspect, Rogie Senatin, evaded arrest.
The operation in Barangay Lag-asan, by operatives of the Regional Police Drug Enforcement Unit-6 and Bago City Police Station, began at 2:50 p.m. when the poseur-buyer negotiated with the suspects in a vacant area inside the residential subdivision.
The undercover police officer was able to buy six sachets of shabu worth P100,000.
After the motorcycle-riding suspects were cornered, the operatives recovered from their possession two plastic bags of the same prohibited substance, weighing two kilograms placed inside a sling bag.
Each gram of shabu has a standard price of P6,800, which makes a kilogram worth P6.8 million.
The suspects also yielded a basic mobile phone, several empty transparent plastic sachets, a digital weighing scale, and other non-drugs items used for repacking of the prohibited substance.
Lt. Col. Joem Malong, spokesperson of PRO-6, said the arrested suspects are listed as street level individuals.
They were reported to be connected with a drug group in Negros Occidental, she added.
After the operation was successfully carried out, Brig. Gen. Rolando Miranda, director of PRO-6, and Col. Romy Palgue, director of Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, arrived at the scene.
Miranda congratulated the operating teams led by the RPDEU-6 for the major drug haul.
“We are relentless in our campaign against illegal drugs. This shows we have good intelligence-gathering operation. This is also a result of the cooperation between the police and the community. We are gaining ground in our campaign,” Miranda said in an interview. – NLG/GB
