A suspected drug peddler was shot dead by unknown assailants while four suspected drug pushers, including two alleged notorious personalities, were nabbed by the police in separate incidents just hours apart in Consolacion, 13 kilometers north of Cebu City, on Saturday and early on Sunday.
Eddie Ybañez, 27, a resident of Purok 8 in Barangay Nangka, was sitting on a roadside bench when repeatedly shot in the head and body by two men riding in tandem on a motorcycle at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, according to Senior Inspector William Homoc, the head of the Municipal Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Group (MAIDSOTG) of the Consolacion police.
Homoc said witnesses were unable to identify the perpetrators as they quickly fled to unknown direction. Responding policemen found five empty shells of .45 caliber pistol from the crime scene.
Homoc said Ybañez was a surrenderer under Operation Tokhang, and it was possible that he had returned to his illegal drug activities and was killed by rivals in the drug trade.
Hours later, an alleged notorious drug pusher, identified as Rogelio Dutallas, alias “Roy,” and two of his alleged cohorts, Dixson Ledesma and Shelamie Bomediano, were arrested in an anti-drug operation by the Consolacion police with the assistance of the Philippine Army also in Barangay Nangka.
The three, who were nabbed in separate residences inside the V and G Subdivision in Barangay Nangka, are currently detained at the Consolacion police station pending the appropriate charges to be filed against them in the court, said Homoc.
Homoc said they were assisted by Army personnel, who were detailed in Consolacion as part of the military security forces who were deployed all over Cebu to foil any attempt to sow terror during the Sinulog Festival.
Homoc said they were able to seize from Dutallas 11 small plastic sachet of suspected shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) worth P6,000, recovered the P200 marked money used in the buy-bust operation and another P200 believed to be proceeds of selling illegal drugs.
Early on Sunday, another suspected drug peddler was also arrested in Consolacion, identified as Rey G. Abao.
A report released by the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) said that Abao was arrested at 3:20 a.m. on Sunday and is now detained at the Consolacion Police for violating Section 5 and 11 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2012.
Recovered from Abao were about 30 grams of substance believed to be shabu valued at P340,000, said the CPPO report posted on its Facebook page on Sunday.
Homoc said the police also found that Abao had a pending arrest warrant for another drug-related case pending before the Cebu Regional Trial Court Branch 11.