Ex-con yields P3M ‘shabu’ in Molo
ILOILO City – In a significant crackdown on the illicit drug trade, the Iloilo City Police Office ( ICPO) successfully apprehended a formerly convicted drug personality in this city’s Barangay San Juan, Molo district.
Estanislao Vito Hinojales, who also goes by the alias “Shaolin,” was identified by the ICPO’s City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) as a high-value drug personality.
ICPO- CDEU operatives, under the l eadership of Lieutenant Colonel Antonio P. Benitez Jr., together with elements of Police Station 4 and the Iloilo Maritime Police Station, managed to seize 11 heat- sealed transparent plastic sachets containing suspected shabu, including the buy-bust item.
The illegal substance weighed approximately 150 grams and had a standard price of P1,020,000 and a staggering street value of P3,000,000.
Benitez said the operation at around 10 p.m. on Thursday, March 21, utilized two body- worn cameras to ensure transparency and accountability throughout the proceedings.
“It took three weeks ( of monitoring) kag madakpan sya kay naga dula- dula sya. Until nga nag sugot sya mag baligya sang P14,000 worth nga shabu,” Benitez said.
Hinojales, a 44- year- old married resident of Barangay San Juan, is presently detained at the Police Station 4 custodial facility pending further disposition.
Benitez revealed that sometime in 2002, the suspect was arrested and convicted for the same offense.
He served eight years in jail, and he was released after completing his imprisonment.
However, in June 2023, the suspect and five others were apprehended in a buybust operation in Barangay San Juan. But Hinojales was released after posting bail.
“After nya gwa, nagabalik naman sya baligya,” Benitez added./