P25.9M SHABU SEIZED IN BOHOL

Alleged “Drug Queen” Maida Quimson Jabines (right) and her four suspected drug runners are presented to the media in Bohol on Saturday. At least 2.2 kilos of shabu worth P25.9 million were seized in a raid conducted on Jabines’s rented apartment on Friday afternoon. (Contributed Photo/Ric Obedencio)

Tagbilaran City – Nearly P26 million worth of shabu believed to have come from Cebu ended up in  Bohol province and was seized from the house of a woman tagged by police authorities as the “drug queen” of Bohol.

The drug seizure, considered the biggest haul this year for the police in Central Visayas, came barely 24 hours before another drug raid, this time in Cebu City, yielded P1.2 million of suspected illegal drugs from an alleged drug den in Barangay Camputhaw on Saturday afternoon.

Alleged Bohol “drug queen”  Maida Quimson Jabines, 47, and a native of Sierra-Bullones town in Bohol, was arrested and now faced a string of charges after a raid at her rented house in Tagbilaran City on Friday netted for the police 2.2 kilos of suspected shabu (methampethamine hydrochloride) valued at P25.9 million.

Also arrested with Jabines were four other persons who were in her house during the raid, identified as Daryl Louie Quimson, Ruel Vitor, Rosulo Pamaong and the house owner, James Louie Bongalos.

Senior Insp. Jojit Mananquil of the Bohol Provincial Police Office’s (BPPO) Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) said the amount of shabu seized from Jabines was the province’s largest drug haul.

“So far, it is the largest drug haul ever recovered here,” he said.

Jabines and the four were detained at the BPPO cell pending the filing of charges for violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002,  illegal possession of firearms and violation of the election gun ban.

The five were presented on Saturday by the police to reporters in Tagbilaran, Bohol’s capital city, but they refused to issue a statement.

According to Senior Insp. Ricardo Tero of PIB, Jabines was once arrested by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group but was later released. He, however, could not recall the details.

He said Jabines was dubbed as Bohol’s “drug queen” because of the amount of shabu seized from her during the operation on Friday, which was a product of weeks of surveillance.

Tero claimed Jabines allegedly has a network of drug pushers operating in Tagbilaran City and in neighboring towns.

“She can dispose as much as two kilos in just one day,” said Tero.

Tero said Jabines got her supplies from Cebu because the proximity made it easier to sneak shabu from Cebu to Bohol. He, however, could not pinpoint how exactly the illegal drugs were smuggled into Bohol from Cebu.

Supt. Ricky Delilis, deputy provincial director for operations of the BPPO, said they strongly suspected that the shabu came from Cebu, but it could also come from Metro Manila and other nearby provinces. He said that while Bohol now appeared to be attractive to drug dealers,  the “arrest of this drug queen is a testament that despite our busy schedules for the May polls, we are still conducting illegal drug operations.”

ENTRY POINTS

“Bohol is an island. They can easily transport here the illegal drugs coming from other provinces. They dock on private piers and not necessarily in our public ports around the island that makes it difficult for them to be apprehended,” Delilis told Cebu Daily News by phone. One suspicion was the drugs were brought in via the roll-on, roll-off vessels that dock on a regular basis at the seven ports operating on the island. These ports are located in Tagbilaran City and the towns of  Tubigon, Ubay, Jagna, Talibon, Loon and Getafe.

Tero said another way of transporting the illicit drug would be through small fishing boats that cross the waters between Cebu and Bohol. The likely entry points of these bancas carrying illegal drugs would be the coastal towns of Getafe, Inabanga, Buenavista, Clarin, Ubay, Bien Unido and Tubigon, he added.

A similar report was made by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Bohol during the  Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) last week, which reported  that a big part of the supply of shabu being sold in Bohol came from Cebu, while the rest came from Ozamis City and Metro Manila.

PDEA suspected that the supply was brought to Bohol from Cebu through small pumpboats and dropped in islets off Bohol. The drug couriers could not be arrested because the boats looked like small fishing boats and crew disguised themselves as fishermen, the PDEA report said.

Lea Albiar, PDEA 7 spokesperson, said they were still verifying if the drug seized in Bohol came from Cebu.  However, she said,  it would not be a surprise if the suspicion was true given the proximity of the two islands and because of the proliferation of illicit drugs in Cebu.

In the case of Jabines, an informant played a vital role alerting the police of her drug operation, leading a week-long surveillance before she was caught.

When the Jabines’s alleged drug trade was confirmed, PID operatives applied for a search warrant that was granted by Judge Suceso Arcamo of the Regional Trial Court Branch 47 in Tagbilaran City.  The operation was carried out by a ten-man team headed by Supt. Jeffrey Caballes, chief of PIB.

Tero said the raid was conducted at 4:40 p.m. on Friday at the rented house of Jabines on J.A. Clarin Street, Barangay Cogon, Tagbilaran City.

Quimson, Vitor, Pamaong and Bongalos, who were in the house during the raid, were arrested after they were caught carrying a Black widow 9mm caliber revolver, .22 caliber pistol and a KG9 machine pistol, all with live ammunition.

“Vitor was at the house to remit his sales. Others may be there to either use or buy drugs from Jabines,” said Tero.

Seized inside the house were one big pack, nine medium packs and one small pack that contained white powder believed to be shabu, which weighed a total of 2.2 kilos, and had a market value of least P25.9 million.

Aside from the drugs and guns, the police also found and seized drug paraphernalia during the raid.

In Cebu City, operatives of the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group Central Visayas (RAIDSOTG) arrested Roger Balmori, 48, a suspected level one drug pusher operating in Barangay Camputhaw who could dispose 50 grams of illegal drugs per week. Senior Insp. Henrix Bancoleta of RAIDSOTG-7 said Balmori was arrested after a policeman posing as buyer went to his house and bought P500 worth of shabu.

At least 10 medium packs of suspected illegal drugs were seized from Balmori’s house in Purok 4, Lower Camputhaw, Cebu City at past 4 p.m. on Saturday. Police were still verifying the source of the illegal drugs seized from Balmori.

A woman named Kharleen Mariñas, 26, was also arrested by the operatives after she was caught in Balmori’s house with a pack of suspected shabu. The two were now held at the Cebu City Police Station 2, which is located across the office of the RAIDSOTG-7 inside Camp Sergio Osmeña,  since their office had no detention facility.

On April 16, PDEA-7 also busted a drug den in Sitio Villagonzalo II, Barangay Tejero, Cebu City where P150,000 worth of illegal drugs were seized from suspects Rangie Rosemadero, 23; Rendo Plenos, 31; and Marcial Carbonilla, 32.