TEN suspected drug personalities, including a Zamboanga del Norte policeman and his wife, were arrested in a string of anti-narcotics operations conducted by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency this week, PDEA chief Jose S. Gutierrez, Jr. said yesterday.
Gutierrez identified the policeman as Police Officer 1 Alexander Lapinig alias Tatil, 38.
Lapinig and his wife Judy were caught while conspiring to sell P1,000 worth of shabu to an undercover officer of the PDEA Regional Office 9 at Purok Pag-asa, Barangay Barbara, Dipolog City.
Gutierrez said that shortly after the couple was arrested, officers armed with a search warrant issued by Digos City Judge Chandler Ruiz raided their house where they seized 10 plastic sachets containing shabu and assorted drug sniffing paraphernalia.
In Pangasinan, PDEA agents nabbed Nestor Tubig in a buy-bust operation on Sison Street, Barangay Dilan-Purtido, Urdaneta City shortly after he sold P1,000 worth of shabu to an officer.
Two others identified as Melchor Abogade and Reyjay Barroca were collared in separate anti-narcotics operations in Butuan City and Matinao, Davao City. Abogade yielded two grams of shabu after he was arrested at Purok 8, Sto. Niño, Barangay Ong Yiu in Butuan City.
Barroca fell into police hands after he sold three packets of shabu to a poseur in MacAthur Highway, Matinao, Davao City.
Suspect Ronald Tamon was arrested by combined agents of the PDEA Regional Office 12 and the Norala municipal police after he sold shabu to an undercover officer near his store at Purok San Roque, Barangay Poblacion.
PDEA Region 12 chief Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz said they had received reports that Tamon was using his “sari-sari” store as front in his illegal drug activities.
In Legazpi City, two suspected drug personalities identified as Felizardo Rodriguez, Sr. and Joven Bodopol were arrested by PDEA and police operatives in Barangay Bitano.
Two peddlers of sandals and fake DVDs and CDs-turned drug dealers, Kamar Makalandap alias “Lia,” 29, and Jamaloding Ali Naik alias “Michael,” 27, were arrested in an entrapment in La Trinidad, Benguet.
