Six suspected drug personalities, including two high-value individuals (HVIs), were arrested in various operations conducted by personnel of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) over the weekend.
The operations, carried out by personnel of City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) and Police Station 2, yielded about PHP816,000 worth of suspected shabu.
At around 6:20 p.m. on Sunday, two suspects were apprehended in Purok Lampirong, Barangay 2, identified as Elmann Mundo, 39, an HVI, and April Lloyd Lobaton, 43, both residents of Barangay Estefania.
Operatives seized from Mundo and Lobaton six big and one elongated sachets of shabu along with a medium sachet containing the same prohibited substance they sold to an undercover policeman.
The recovered shabu weighed about 31 grams with a street value of PHP434,000.
Also found in the possession of the suspects were a digital weighing scale, an improvised tooter, boodle money comprised of 30 pieces of PHP100 bills, PHP1,000 cash, and a white Toyota Innova vehicle.
At about the same time, two other suspects identified as Antonio Enrique Locsin IV, 22, and Paolo Togle, 40, were arrested in front of a shopping mall on Araneta Street.
Lt. Paul Vincent Pendon, head of CDEU, said the two, who are considered as newly-identified drug personalities, yielded five sachets of suspected shabu weighing 15 grams and valued at PHP212,000.
Operatives also recovered from the suspects an improvised tooter as well as a .38-caliber pistol with two live ammunition.
Over the weekend, two other suspects were also arrested by operatives of CDEU in Purok Langis, Barangay Banago.
They were identified as Eugene Sotto, an HVI, and Reynaldo Ponteras Jr., who yielded PHP170,000 worth of shabu.
The street value of shabu went up here during the community quarantine.
Maj. Sherlock Gabana, chief of Police Station 2, earlier said that before the coronavirus disease 2019 crisis, the street value of shabu in the city was pegged at only PHP8,500 to PHP9,000 per gram. (Nanette Guadalquiver ndb via pna)
