Two drug dealers busted in Mambaling, yield P2M shabu

PDEA HAUL. Suspected drug pusher Henry E. Tabalin is presented to the media on Friday by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) after he was arrested in Sitio Paglaom, Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City and seized from him more that P1.4 million worth of suspected shabu in a buy-bust operation on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2016 (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA).

A total of 417 grams of suspected shabu amounting to almost P2 million were seized by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) from two drug personalities in separate buy-bust operations in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City, on Thursday and Friday.

After weeks of surveillance, Henry Ebisa Tabalin, 44, allegedly a notorious drug dealer, was collared during a buy-bust operation at Sitio Paglaom on Thursday at 11 p.m.

Elements of PDEA-7 were able to recover from him three plastic packs of suspected shabu (methamphetamine) weighing 285 grams worth P1.425 million, a digital weighing scale, a mobile phone, 15 pieces of empty plastic sachets and P2,000 buy-bust money, according to PDEA-7 spokesperson Leia Albiar.

Barely 24 hours later, another suspected drug pusher was nabbed in the same barangay by the operatives of the Mambaling Police Station.

The buy-bust operation undertaken under Project Double Barrel Alpha at Avocado Street on Sitio Mabapo, Barangay Mambaling, resulted in the arrest of Russel Pioquinto Rosello, another alleged notorious drug pusher in the area.

Rosello was said to be able to dispose from 100 to 200 grams of shabu a week, and his arrest came after a month-long monitoring and validation of his activities, according to a Mambaling police report received by PDEA-7 yesterday and released by Albiar.

Recovered from Rosello were two big packs, two medium-sized packs and 16 small packs of white crystalline substance believed to be shabu weighing 132 grams worth P500,000, a .38 caliber pistol and P12,000 believed to be proceeds of his illegal drug trade.

The two recent drug busts brings the total amount of confiscated shabu this week to almost P48 million, following the previous arrest of two drug peddlers on November 8.

Melchor Ocarol, 53, brother of a former barangay captain, fell after police raided his home in Barangay Pasil. The bust yielded several packs of suspected shabu weighing 1.25 kilos valued at P14.809 million.

A logbook that listed all of Ocarol’s transactions indicated that he was supplying illegal drugs in at least three other barangays in Cebu City, namely Carreta, Labangon and Guadalupe.

Just hours after Ocarol’s arrest, big-time drug pusher named Maria del Mar was arrested by PDEA-7 in a condominium in Sitio Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe. She yielded packs of suspected shabu weighing two kilos worth at least P32 million.

The string of drug bust operations that transpired during the week were all part of PDEA-7’s intensive cleansing of drug-infested barangays in Cebu City, Albiar said.