BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Two more members of the Divinagracia drug group died during an armed confrontation with the police on May 23 at Katarungan Village 1 in Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila, and the operation yielded about 10 kilos of suspected shabu, worth P68 million.
The deaths of Jordan Sabandal Abrigo and Jayvee de Guzman in another joint police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency anti-drug operation in Muntinlupa came five days after the alleged drug group leader, Michael Divinagracia, of Silay City, Negros Occidental, was found dead at the national highway of Baras town in Rizal on May 19.
JOINT OPERATION
PNP chief, Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, said that intelligence operatives of the Police Regional Office in Western Visayas joined other police and PDEA units at the National Capital Region in conducting the buy-bust operation that resulted in the killing of Abrigo and de Guzman, and the recovery of 10 kilos of suspected shabu placed in three plastic packs of Chinese tea bags, P1.5 million in boodle money, and two .45 caliber pistols.
Eleazar said the two drug suspects were members of the Divinagracia drug group led by Michael and a certain Jhonson, a Chinese national currently serving sentence at the New Bilibid Prison.
The drug group, that is among the six drug syndicates operating in Negros Occidental, is known to be the distributor of illegal drugs in various areas of the National Capital Region, Western Visayas, and nearby provinces, the PNP said.
Eleazar said the Divinagracia drug syndicate also operates in the Visayas and Mindanao, using cargo trucks travelling via Roll on-Roll off vessels from the port of Batangas.
Lt. Col. Joem Malong, spokesperson of the PRO 6, said earlier that the Divinagracia drug group is supplying five to 10 kilos of shabu to Negros Occidental every week. Michael had a reward of P500,000 for his arrest, before he was found dead last week.*
