BY SHIELA G. GELERA AND GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A suspected pusher was arrested in a buy-bust operation at Zone 9 in Barangay Handumanan, Bacolod City, at about 10:50 a.m. Saturday.
Police Station 10 Drug Enforcement Unit personnel nabbed Ritchie Castro, 42, of Zone 3 in the barangay, with six small heat-sealed plastic sachets of suspected shabu, weighing 0.13 gram and P6,000 in street value, P300 in marked money, P1,100 in cash, a cellular phone, and a transparent plastic sachet, records show.
Castro is now detained at the custodial facility of Station 10, and charges for violation of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, are being readied against him, the police said.
Three more drug suspects in Negros Occidental are also now in jail after their apprehension in separate police operations on Friday and Saturday in Negros Occidental that also resulted in the recovery of suspected shabu and an unlicensed firearm.
The arrest on Saturday of AljearhuOdasco, alias AJ, in Purok Iva, Brgy. Andres Bonifacio, Sagay City, yielded six sachets of suspected shabu with a market value of P3,000 and P500 in marked money.
Another buy-bust operation also on Saturday at Magsaysay Street,Brgy. 5, Victorias City, also led to the arrest of a drug suspect identified by the police as Bernard Sabalilag.
The apprehension of Sabalilag, 24, who was included in the Victorias City police drug watch list, yielded a sachet of suspected dried marijuana leaves,100 in marked money, P120 in cash believed to be proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs, and a cellular phone, a report of the Victorias City Police Station said.
The apprehension of Rigor Orosa, 26, during the implementation of a search warrant issued by Judge ConradoEstreller on Friday in Brgy. Caliling, Cauayan, also yielded a .22 caliber revolver with six live ammunition and five sachets of suspected shabu.*
