P70M shabu seized
Authorities arrested a motorcycle-forhire driver and confiscated from him 5,050 grams of shabu worth at least P34 million in Consolacion, Cebu Thursday night, bringing to over P70 million worth of illegal drugs the police seized the past three days.
The operation against the suspect, Kirby Baguio Abanilla, 37, was an offshoot of another buy-bust operation, said Cebu City Police Director Engelbert Soriano.
Soriano said Abanilla is a resident of Barangay Suba in Cebu City but sold his supplies in Consolacion.
In the operation prior to Abanilla’s arrest, authorities confiscated shabu worth P20 million in Barangay Apas.
Abanilla’s arrest brought to P70.7 million the worth of shabu the police confiscated in its three-day Synchronized Enhancement Managing and Police Operations (SEMPO) in Cebu City and province from February 18 to 20.
During these operations, the police arrested 484 suspects, 344 of whom were arrested with warrants. Of the 484 suspects, 59 were considered high value targets and 221 were classified as street level targets.
The police also confiscated 289 loose firearms – 186 of which were from operations in the province and 103 were from operations in Cebu City.
SEMPO focused on the campaign against illegal drugs, illegal gambling, loose firearms, service of warrant of arrest, and OPLAN katok.
Police Regional Office - 7 Durector Albert Ignatius Ferro commended his men.
“As your regional director, I commend the members of the PRO7... this is a significant accomplishment having 10 kilos of shabu seized in the conduct of PRO7 wide SEMPO,” Ferro said.
He said the outcome of SEMPO showed that his men took his directive to be analytical in approach and conduct intelligencedriven operations.
He said the shabu confiscated, which was placed in a tea bag, indicates that it was smuggled into the country. He reportedly saw the same manner of packing when he was still with the Drug Enforcement Unit head of the PNP.
“I would like to inform you that (shabu) is coming from Myanmar… we know, somehow, how it was smuggled into our country,” he said.
He said investigation in ongoing to determine how these huge amounts of shabu were smuggled into the country and eventually to the streets of Cebu.
He said it is less possible that the shabu was manufactured here because police investigation since 2016 into the matter turned out negative.
He said PRO-7 will intensify border patrol and will coordinate with the Coast Guard and Navy.
“We assure the Cebuanos, the general public of Central Visayas, that they (police) will remain to keep watch especially when they have considerable victories in bringing the crimes down," Ferro said.