Shabu stash seized in Negros Occ
BACOLOD CITY – A combined law enforcement team seized about R72 million worth of shabu during a bust in San Carlos City midnight Wednesday.
The six kilos of shabu is believed to be the biggest haul of illegal drugs in Western Visayas.
The operation in Barangay Palampas was carried out by elements from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), backed up by troops from the Army's 79th Infantry Battalion.
The three suspects who were the object of the bust escaped, leaving behind the shabu stash tightly wrapped with packaging tape.
Based on estimates by the Dangerous Drugs Board, a kilo of shabu has a street value of R12 million
On Tuesday, police also recovered 120 grams of shabu, estimated at R1.4 million, from two men from Marawi City temporarily residing at the Islamic Center in Bacolod City.
In just two days, police have seized an estimated R73.4 million of the illegal substance in Negros Occidental.
Supt. D Artagnan Katalbas, San Carlos police chief, said the escaped suspects were identified as a certain Potot, Armando and Josephine Paraquelles.
It was the second time this year authorities recovered a big volume of shabu in Barangay Palampas. Several months ago, the arrest of a habal-habal driver yielded more than half a kilo of shabu, worth R6.8 million.
Katalbas said the three suspects in Palampas were new players in the illegal drug scene in San Carlos and neighboring areas in northern Negros.
Drug dealers have become more enterprising, frequently changing their operating procedure and using new personalities to transport illegal drugs.
Katalbas said drug traffickers used pumpboats in smuggling illegal drugs to San Carlos and Calatrava from Toledo, Cebu.
He said investigators are still determining where shabu seized from the three suspects came from. But Cebu has been identified by the PDEA and PNP as among the sources of shabu that entered Negros Island.
Katalbas said police were able to jail 30 street level pushers in San Carlos since January up to this time, but that has not stopped the selling of shabu.