The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) presents to the media the arrested persons in their “One time, big time” simultaneous anti-crime operations in the city on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017. Most of the arrested persons were caught engaging in illegal gambling activities.
Photo Fe Marie Dumaboc
AT least 70 individuals were arrested by the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) in a “one time, big time” operation on Thursday.
All eleven police stations in the city participated in the operation dubbed as “Oplan Pokemon.”
The operation was conducted jointly with the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) and the region’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG-7).
City Intelligence Branch (CIB) head Supt. Ryan Devaras said that most of the arrested individuals were allegedly engaging in illegal gambling activities.
Of the 70, one has a warrant of arrest for robbery, three were allegedly possessing illegal firearms and 10 were arrested for illegal drugs.
Devaras said that some of those arrested for illegal drugs were caught in the act sniffing shabu (methamphetamine).
“We will still do profiling on these arrested individuals for illegal drugs. We will try to find out if they are high-value target,” Devaras said.
One of the arrested suspects is a 40-year-old pregnant woman, Glorieta Punzalan, who was manning a video karrera machine in Barangay Ermita and was caught with a small sachet of white crystalline substance believed to be shabu.
Punzalan admitted she was selling drugs but she said only in small amounts. She claimed she was only a week into the illicit trade, which she claimed she only did because she has five small children to feed.