BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN & ADRIAN P. NEMES III
A suspected gunrunner and seven drug personalities were separately arrested by the police in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental Tuesday and yesterday, that yielded an unlicensed firearm with ammunition and about P155,000 worth of illegal drugs.
The joint operation of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bacolod Field Unit and local policemen led to the arrest of Noe Moreno on Jan. 5, during a buy-bust operation in Purok 1, Brgy. Man-uling, Cauayan, Negros Occidental.
Lt. Col. Joem Malong, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 6, said yesterday that the arrest of Moreno, 44, yielded a .45 caliber pistol with two magazines containing 10 ammunition, P100 in marked money, and identification cards.
Malong said that Moreno, who was identified as a gunrunner from Cebu, was monitored to have been selling guns in Cauayan town.
Policemen also seized about 16 grams of suspected shabu, with a market value of P108,000, from Edwin Abela in a buy-bust operation in Sitio Dacutan, Brgy. Mambulac, Silay City, yesterday.
Another operation on Tuesday also led to the arrest of Mark Anthony Baydid, 34, in Purok Esmeralda, Brgy. Poblacion, Bago City.
The apprehension of Baydid, a laborer, yielded 0.4 gram of suspected shabu, worth P2,700, and P567 in cash, police said.
5 NABBED IN BACOLOD
Several sachets of suspected shabu, valued at P55,000, were seized by policemen in buy-bust operations in barangays Banago and 19, Tuesday night.
P/Capt. Jun Ray Batadlan, Police Station 8 chief, said they arrested Darlyn Silva, 26, of Purok Riverside, Banago, when she handed a sachet of suspected shabu to a poseur-buyer near her residence, at about 8 p.m. Tuesday.
He said four sachets of suspected shabu, weighing about 1.7 grams and worth P13,000, P500 in marked money and drug paraphernalia were seized during her arrest.
An hour later, Station 4 operatives arrested June Rey Divinagracia, alias “Ongkoy”, 34, and his live-in partner, Baby Girl Segovia, 24, both of Purok Mabinuligon in Brgy. 19.
The arrest was made after Divinagracia handed an elongated transparent plastic sachet of suspected shabu to his live-in partner, who sold it to a police poser-buyer for P500, Station 4 chief, P/Maj. Charles Gever, said.
Gever said they also recovered another elongated sachet and two big plastic sachets of suspected shabu and P400 in cash during the arrest of Divinagracia.
He said they also arrested Benmer Menes and Michael Arellano, both of legal age and residents of Brgy. 40, and recovered an elongated sachet of suspected shabu from each of them.
Gever said the confiscated sachets of suspected shabu from the four arrested are valued at P42,000. The suspects are now in police custody and will be charged for violation of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.*
