P7M shabu seized; HVI nabbed in Subangdaku buy-bust

Mandaue police officials arrest Edson Canillo, who is caught with a kilo of suspected shabu during a buy-bust operation in Mandaue City. | Norman Mendoza

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Police confiscated a kilo of suspected shabu worth at least P7 million during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City at past 10 p.m. of February 27, 2020.

Aside from that, police also arrested Edson Canillo, 27, of C. Padilla Street, Barangay Tejero, Cebu City, whom police considered a high value individual, during the buy-bust operation.

Subangdaku bust

Police Lieutenant Colonel Franco Rudolf Oriol, Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) City Intelligence Branch (CIB) chief, said they conducted the operation against Canillo after one of the drug personalities they arrested in a previous buy-bust operation pointed to Canillo as the source of his drugs.

Oriol said that the CIB established contact with the suspect and set up the buy-bust operation with a test buy of 25 grams of suspected shabu.

According to Oriol, the meet was agreed upon and that was at the Mandaue Reclamation Area in Barangay Subangdaku.

Canillo was arrested after undercover policeman managed to buy suspected shabu from the suspect.

1 kilo of shabu

Oriol said they confiscated a kilo of suspected shabu from the suspect, aside from the 25 grams that they purchased from him.

The suspect later told police that he did not know who supplied with the illegal drugs.

He told Oriol that somebody would drop a paper bag full of the suspected shabu, whom he did not recognize and would later call him if the illegal drugs were already sold.

Police Colonel Jonathan Abella, MCPO chief, said that the arrest of Canillo was due to the intensified drug campaign of the police in the city to prevent the transport of illegal drugs from other areas to Mandaue City.

Canillo was detained at the Mandaue City Police Office detention cell pending the filing of charges. /dbs