Photo courtesy of PDEA-7
CEBU, DUMAGUETE RAIDS
Two separate Saturday raids in Cebu City and Dumaguete City on suspected drug dens, which was run by three women — two of whom were sisters — led to the arrest of 23 people.
Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7), who conducted the two operations on Saturday, also confiscated P268,000 worth of illegal drugs and several drug paraphernalia.
Leia Albiar, PDEA-7 spokesperson, said that both operations took more than a week to implement with the PDEA-7 agents spending a week to monitor and validate the information they received about the suspected drug dens.
At past midnight on Saturday, the operations were launched with PDEA-7 agents serving a search warrant against sisters Susan and Marites Romano, to search their house, a suspected drug den, in Barangay Apas, Cebu City.
But during the raid, Albiar said, the PDEA-7 agents only managed to arrest the younger sister, Susan, 48, because the elder sister, Marites, managed to slip away before the raid was conducted.
Albiar said that aside from Susan, six people, who were inside the Romano house, were also arrested.
The PDEA-7 agents also found inside the house 10 grams of suspected shabu with an estimated Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) value of P68,000.
At 9 a.m. on the same day, the second operation was conducted, this time on a suspected drug den in Barangay Looc, Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental,
PDEA-7 agents together with the Negros Oriental Police Office (NOPO) arrested Winefreda Semetara, 68, the woman who allegedly run the suspected drug den in her house, and 16 other people, who were inside the house during the operation.
Albiar said that aside from the arrests, they also found and confiscated inside Sematara’s house 30 grams of suspected shabu worth at least P200,000.
Aside from the suspected illegal drugs, two pails filled with suspected drug paraphernalia were also found inside Sematara’s house and were also confiscated.
“Kani sa Dumaguete notorious na ni siya nga magmaintain og drug den (In the Dumaguete operation, the suspect was known for maintaining a drug den),” said Albiar.
She also said that Sematara’s house as as an alleged drug den was popular among drug users in the area.
She said that Sematara could allegedly dispose of 100 grams of suspected shabu a day in the suspected drug den.
The suspects in the Cebu City raid were detained at the PDEA-7 office detention cell while the Dumaguete City raid suspects were detained at the PDEA-7 satellite office in Dumaguete City.
Charges against the suspects would be filed next week.