A new player in the drug trade escaped arrest during a raid on his house on Thursday evening in Barangay Duljo, Cebu City, but police caught two others in a separate operation a few hours later in the same barangay.
Police also confiscated an estimated P430,000 worth of suspected shabu from the suspects.
The first operation was conducted at 10 p.m. on Thursday but their target, Carl”Siboy” Butalid, 22, of Sitio Seaside, Barangay Duljo, managed to elude the raiding team.
Butalid was not in his house when a joint team of the Cebu City Police Office and the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office raided his house, said Supt. Cristopher Navida, CCPO City Intelligence Branch chief, in a phone interview on Friday.
Navida said that an undercover police officer did a test buy to confirm Butalid’s illegal activities.
When he returned with the joint team to raid Butalid’s house at past 10 p.m., the suspect was no longer there.
Navida said that the team, however, recovered a medium pack and eight sachets of suspected shabu weighing 5.48 grams with an estimated Dangerous Drugs Board value of P64,664.
Navida also said that the operation against Butalid was conducted after a drug personality in Lapu-Lapu City was arrested and pointed to Butalid as the source of the illegal drugs.
Despite eluding the police, Navida said that a case against Butalid would still be filed against him.
A few hours later, at 1 a.m. on Friday, police arrested two men in a buy-bust operation in Sitio Riverside, Barangay Duljo, Cebu City.
James Karl “Jake” Sacedon, 20, of Sitio Riverside and Noel Regis “Dungkoy” Oltiano were arrested after they were caught selling illegal drugs, Navida said.
He said that Sacedon was a new player in the drug trade in the barangay.
A medium pack and a large pack of suspected shabu weighing 31 grams were confiscated from the suspects.
Navida said that the confiscated suspected shabu had a DDB value of P365,800.
The two suspects were detained at the CCPO detention cell pending the filing of charges.