P7M worth of ‘shabu’ seized in Cebu City buy-bust; ‘stevedore’ nabbed

Cebu City police arrested a 25-year-old man with almost P7 million worth of suspected shabu past midnight on Saturday, April 9, 2022, in Sitio Bliss, Barangay Labangon.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Roberto Bacod, 25,  used to work as a stevedore at the Carbon Public Market.

He left his job after super typhoon Odette hit Cebu on December 16, 2021, and shifted to selling illegal drugs for easy cash.

But before Bacod, a resident of Bliss in Barangay Labangon, could save money from his new job, he was arrested by the police and will now have to serve a jail term for his crime.

He was arrested by the police shortly after midnight on Saturday while selling drugs to a poseur buyer along the road in Sitio Bliss, just a few meters away from his home.

Operatives of the City Drug Enforcement Unit of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) confiscation of 1.025 grams of suspected shabu worth P6.9 million from the suspect’s possession.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Devaras, deputy director for administration of the CCPO, Bacod is listed as a high-value individual in Central Visayas, who is capable of disposing at least one kilo of ‘shabu’ per week to buyers in Cebu City and in neighboring localities.

First Arrest

In an interview, Bacod said, he was just new in the illegal drugs business.

He started to work as a distributor in the later part of December 2021 and his arrest on Saturday was his first.

But he refused to comment when asked about his supplier.

“Sa number ra  [naay motext] pero wa ko kahibalo kay di man nako kaila,” Bacod said.

(I just text a particular number but I do not know who the person is because I haven’t met him.)

Bacod said he would receive an instruction from the owner of the number as to the deliveries that he will have to make.

He said he gets at least P10, 000 for every kilo of shabu that he is able to dispose.

And since he started in December 2021, he already managed to dispose a total of three kilos.

Plea Bargaining

Devaras said that as per their records, Bacod was already arrested earlier for the possession of illegal drugs, but he was released after he agreed to plea bargain.

However, he is yet check on the date of his first arrest.

Devaras said Bacod’s name surfaced during their investigation of successful drug operations in the past months.

They continue to look into his background to especially determine if he is indeed a member of a newly created Cebu-based drug group.

He said they also continue to look into reports that the suspect is in contact with a detainee at the Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunsan.

Cebu City drugs

Following Bacod’s arrest and the recent confiscation of P6.9 million worth of illegal drugs, Devaras admitted that illegal drugs continue to proliferate in the city but it’s no longer as rampant as it was before.

Devaras also asked those who earn from illegal drugs to already cease their operations because of the ongoing intensified anti-illegal drugs campaign by the police.

“The Cebu City Police Office, Philippine National Police, will continue our intensive anti-illegal drug operation. Di ta muundang until such time nga mahurot,” he said.

READ: P39-M drug haul in 2 separate Cebu City buy-bust operations — police

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