Suspected Prevendido subgroup leader yields 23 sachets of shabu
ILOILO City – A man believed to be working for fugitive suspected drug lord Richard Prevendido was arrested in Barangay San Isidro, Jaro district.
Rey Vasquez, 41, was detained at the Jaro police station after selling two sachets of shabu for P2,000 to an undercover police officer around 11:15 p. m. on Sunday.
Vasquez was a high- value drug target in Western Visayas, said Senior Superintendent Christopher Tambungan, chairperson of the Police Regional Office 6’s oversight committee on illegal drugs.
Twenty-one more sachets of shabu valued at P70,000 were recovered from the suspect.
“He was too elusive,” said Tambungan.
From what the police so far gathered, Vasquez got his supply of shabu from Barangay Bakhaw,
Mandurriao district. Prevendido, a resident of Barangay Bakhaw, is currently
in hiding.“His members have taken over his illegal business,” Tambungan told News. The arrest of Prevendido and “all high-valuePanay (drug) targets” remains a priority, according to Chief Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag, acting police director of the region.
Binag’s predecessor, Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles, left Western Visayas failing to arrest Prevendido although under his watch, the other suspected drug lord identified by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Melvin Odicta Sr., was killed by still unidentified gunmen in Malay, Aklan in August last year.
“President Rodrigo Duterte instructed to us to run after and prioritize top drug personalities,” said Binag who, prior to his Western Visayas assignment, headed the PNP’s Firearms and Explosives Office in Camp Crame.
Gentiles gave his men until Dec. 31, 2016 to arrest Prevendido but efforts to locate the drug suspect were unsuccessful despite tips from informants and a P1-million bounty from the city and provincial governments of Iloilo./