DRUG PERSONALITIES Probe on suspected 16 dealers

The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) will validate the identities and market of the 16 suspected drug lords operating in Cebu and being monitored by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 7.

Supt. Artemio Ricabo, CCPO deputy director for administration, said that PDEA 7 is the agency authorized to declare a level/ category of a certain drug player, if he or she is a drug lord or just a small-time player.

“If that’s their declaration, then we will follow them. Because the role of the police is to support the PDEA,” he said.

Chief Insp. Cristopher Navida, head of the City Intelligence Branch (CIB), admitted that they are looking into several drug personalities operating in the city.

“Many personalities surfaced but they don’t reside here in Cebu. What we established so far is that they are detained in the National Bilibid Prisons and that their transactions are spontaneous and made through phone calls,” he said in Tagalog.

Navida said that the CCPO and PDEA have the same qualifications for personalities to be called high-value targets but they use different terms.

“In terms of amount confiscated, we can tell that the person falls into the level of a drug lord,” he said.

In months of surveillance and anti-drug operations, the CCPO has not yet named a drug player as a drug lord, Navida said.

He added that they are monitoring old and new drug players who may be part of the 16 drug lords operating in Cebu.

In the PDEA’s list, there were 17 suspected drug lords allegedly operating in Cebu; one of them, Marwin Abelgas, was arrested last Friday in Talisay City allegedly in possession of P20-million worth of shabu. Three other drug lords are also allegedly based in Bohol.

Many personalities surfaced, but they don’t reside here in Cebu. What we established so far is that they are detained in the National Bilibid Prison and that their transactions are spontaneous through phone calls. CCPO CIB Chief Christopher Navida