Suspects nabbed in drug operations claim transacting with PDLs

|Photo form FB page of PCol Josefino Ligan

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The two suspects who were nabbed in separate drug operations here on Monday, September 20, 2021,  claimed they were transacting with Persons Deprived with Liberty.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office, said that suspects pointing out inmates as alleged facilitators of delivering drug supply in Cebu is a major problem in the conduct of their investigation, especially in finding their top source.

Parilla added that in this case, their investigation usually stops at the city jail.

The two individuals who were nabbed in separate buy-bust operations on Monday were identified as Benjie Lupian, 42, a resident of barangay Suba, and Bryan Osabel, 35, a resident of barangay Pasil.

Lupian was arrested in barangay Duljo Fatima with 1,040 grams of ‘shabu’ with an estimated market value of P7 million.  Osabel was nabbed after being caught with 501 grams of ‘shabu’ worth P3 million.

READ: 2 men nabbed with P10M shabu in Cebu City buy-busts

In their initial investigation, both said that they communicate with inmates for their drug supplies. Osabel said that he is allegedly communicating with an inmate from the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog.

Parilla identified this inmate as a certain Joseph Tunacao, who was arrested in Cebu City for drugs in 2019.

Parilla added that Osabel was previously detained at the Cebu City Jail in 2019, wherein he allegedly met Tunacao there and allegedly continued their illegal drug trade after being released in jail in the same year through plea bargaining.

Parilla, however, has no information yet on how many months they’ve spent in the jail that time. He further said that Tunacao was again arrested for the same offense and that he is now spending time inside the Leyte Regional Prison.

He said that they have also yet to coordinate with the Leyte Regional Prison management for their investigation.

Lupian, on the other hand, was also arrested last 2019 for the same offense. Now that he was released from jail in the same year, his drug facilitators were allegedly the inmates he met inside the city jail whom Parilla identified as certain “Jip Libat” and “John Laway”, Lupian’s cousin.

These two are still inside the city jail as of this posting.

Lupian is capable of disposing of at least a hundred grams of ‘shabu’ in Cebu Island, specifically in barangays Duljo Fatima and Pasil in Cebu City, and in Cordova town, and Talisay City.

Osabel and Lupian are considered high-value individuals at the regional level.

Parilla said that they have been in constant communication with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) here to address this recurring issue.

Every time they have operations and suspects claim that they communicate with an inmate in the jail, they will inform them right away so they will conduct their own investigation there.

“Mao na ang usa sa atoang problema kay maputol na ang atoang investigation considering nga naa nas prisohan ang mga nagsugo so we are coordinating sad sa mga BJMP personnel on how they will conduct the investigation nga makuha sad nato kung kinsa jod ilang source,” Parilla said.

Parilla added that the regular greyhound operations that the city jail management is conducting helps in finding some leads through the cellular phones they confiscate.

Once these phones will be recovered, these will be subjected to examination to check if they could get information than can help  identify the top source of illegal drugs proliferating the city.

/bmjo

READ: CIU chief: 90% of arrested drug suspects claim transacting with Cebu City Jail PDLs