Drug busts yield past Tokhang surrenderers

YOUNG and old, the illegal drugs trade continues to lure people into its fold — even those who had vowed in a pledge to the Duterte government to never again do drugs.

A string of operations conducted by elements of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) led to the arrest of 10 drug personalities, most of whom had already surrendered to police in the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign, Oplan Tokhang.

The series of buy-bust operations on drug pushers and users were conducted in the town of Catmon and the cities of Naga and Danao.

According to the Danao City Police Office and the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU), four drug bust operations were conducted in Barangays Poblacion and Suba which resulted in the arrest of five drug users and three pushers.

Police said the drug users, who included a 16-year-old boy, were caught in the act of sniffing shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride).

Most of the arrested drug users were in their late teens to early twenties while the drug pushers were in their late thirties, police said.

Seized from the suspects were 114 small sachets of a white crystalline substance believed to be shabu with an estimated Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) value of almost P60,000.

According to Chief Insp. Gerard Pelare, head of the Danao City Police Office, majority of the arrested drug personalities were among the drug surrenderers last year.

In Catmon, northern Cebu, 19-year-old John Mark Molde was arrested during a buy-bust operation conducted in Barangay Binongkalan.

Molde, also a drug surrenderer last year, was caught with 18 small sachets of shabu.

In Naga City, 40-year-old Hercules Canceran was arrested after he was caught sniffing shabu in Barangay Langtad.

Police said they acted on a tip from a concerned citizen.