Joper Anatado (left) and Janina Bohol (center) will be facing charges for the possession and disposal of illegal drugs following their arrest late on Sunday afternoon./Photo from the Cebu Provincial Police Office
CEBU CITY, Philippines – A suspected member of the Ozamis Group was arrested in a joint buy-bust operation organized by policemen in the neighboring towns of Consolacion and Liloan in northern Cebu late on Sunday afternoon, March 3.
During their investigation, police found out that Joper Carampatan Anatado, 37, was also part of a group of five men who robbed businesses that are located in the two localities.
A press statement posted on the Cebu Provincial Police Office’s (CPPO’s) Facebook page at 5 p.m. today, March 4, said that charges for the possession and sales of illegal drugs are now being prepared against Anatado and his female cohort who was identified as a certain Janina Abavador Bohol, 29.
Police will also be filing separate robbery charges against Anatado, the CPPO report said.
The report released by Police Lieutenant Colonel Eloveo Marquez said that Anatado and Bohol were arrested after a concerned citizen reported to the police their modus of selling illegal drugs at the boundary of the Liloan and Consolacion towns.
Police Majors Gerard Ace Pelare, chief of the Consolacion Police Station, and Danilo Colipano, chief of the Liloan Police Station, coordinated for the conduct of a joint surveillance and later on a buy-bust operation held at around 6 p.m. on Sunday at the vicinity of Sitio Baas, Barangay San Vicente in Liloan town which led to the suspects arrest.
A photo of Anatado from the rogues gallery./ Photo from the Cebu Provincial Police Office
Anatado was a motorcycle-for-hire driver who hails from Zamboanga del Sur.
Police said that Anatado was renting a room in Sitio Baas in Barangay San Vicente that is located at the boundary of Liloan and Consolacion towns while Bohol was an ukay-ukay vendor who also lived in the same sitio.
The CCPO report said that the joint police team confiscated four plastic sachets containing shabu, the P2,000 buy-bust money and a .45 caliber pistol with four live ammunitions from the suspects possession.
During their follow up investigation, police found out that Anatado was also behind the series of robberies in the two neighboring towns.
Police said that Anatado was one of the five suspects who robbed the Palawan Pawnshop and Money Remittance located in Liloan town and the Avon cosmetics store and Veco Remittance Center in Consolacion town.
Anatado belonged to a group of robbers which included Mark Rosal, Johny Francisco and two still unidentified suspects who remain at large.
“Reports also disclosed that they are remnants of the Ozamis Group,” said the CPPO press release.