Police arrest Argie Abella, an alleged member of the notorious Abella Criminal Gang, on a ship on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. | CIDG-7 photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The arrest of the alleged member of the Abella Criminal Gang last Thursday night, Nov. 3, will somehow put a dent on the supply of illegal drugs in the city, particularly in Sitio Tarcum in Barangay Busay, Cebu City.
Police Colonel Peter Tagtag Jr., regional chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7), said that this group, whose members were engaged in gunrunning, robbery, and holdup in the areas of Cebu City and other neighboring cities and municipalities, were also engaged in the illegal drug trade.
Argie Abella, 37, was arrested after he was served a warrant of arrest by the operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Cebu Field Unit, the Cebu City Mobile Force Company and the Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU-7).
Abella, who is from Barangay Busay, Cebu City, is facing a case of murder and the warrant of arrest was issued by Judge Ma. Lynna Pacamalan Adviento, presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court Branch 58 in Cebu City last March 10, 2022. No bail was recommended for Abella.
Last Sept. 4, 2020, Judge Ricky Jones Macabaya, presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court Branch 5 in Cebu City, also issued a warrant of arrest against Abella for homicide. Judge Macabaya set bail for Abella at P120,000.
READ: Alleged member of Abella Criminal Group nabbed
Abella was arrested inside a passenger ship bound for Mindanao on Thursday night, Nov. 3 and he used his cousin’s identity at that time.
Tagtag claimed that Abella was supposed to have an illegal drug transaction in Mindanao prior to his arrest.
Tagtag also said that Abella was allegedly tagged as behind the separate shooting incidents in Barangays Guadalupe and Mambaling in Cebu City.
He described Abella as a person who moved around a lot or would not stay long in one area so that he could not easily be caught.
Tagtag said that Abella then hid and stayed recently in Sitio Tarcum, Barangay Busay, where he started an illegal drug business there.
Abella was tagged as the one allegedly behind the fatal shooting of a drug personality in Sitio Tarcum last January.
Police said that this was so that Abella and his siblings could allegedly take over the drug personality’s illegal drug business and they became the “hari-hari” (kings) of the area.
But then relatives of the drug personality filed a murder case against Abella, and this is one of the cases that he is facing today.
For his part, Police Major Francis Renz Talosig, former chief of Mabolo Police Station and now the commander of the Sawang Calero Police Station, said that when he was still assigned at the Mabolo Police Station just early this year, they conducted several operations against Abella’s alleged accomplices in Sitio Tarcum.
Talosig said that Abella’s group operated in this sitio and whenever they reportedly knew that someone new had entered their sitio, they would allegedly kill the new person in the sitio, believing that the new person would either be a police asset or a competitor of their illegal drug trade.
Tagtag said that the community had greatly helped in tracing the whereabouts of the accused.
He said that they started looking for Abella since June 2022.
He said that it was difficult to find Abella since he has used another name to hide his identity.
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