CEBU CITY–Suspected drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz is dead.
The notorious drug personality in Cebu was shot dead by policemen in an operation in Las Piñas City on Friday night.
Supt. Rex Derilo, head of the Regional Intelligence Division in Central Visayas, explained that Diaz was not their target when they went to the National Capital Region.
He said their purpose was to conduct surveillance operations on Alvaro “Baroc” Alvaro, the number one drug personality in Cebu province who had a pending arrest warrant for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Derilo said it was just a coincidence that they found Diaz with Alvaro in Las Piñas.
“We found that Baroc always went with Jaguar in so many occasions. They saw each other quite often although Jaguar moved from one place to another. He didn’t stay in one location longer than an hour,” said Derilo in an interview with radio station dySS.
Diaz and Alvaro were inside a Toyota Fortuner driven by an alleged drug courier from Cebu City when the police led by Derilo and Regional Special Operations Group-Central Visayas chief Supt. George Ylanan, trailed them.
Derilo said they also coordinated with the Las Piñas City policemen to ensure that the two drug personalities would be arrested.
But while they were in transit, Derilo said they didn’t notice that Alvaro disembarked from the vehicle.
“Nalipat mi. (We didn’t see Baroc get out of the vehicle),” he said.
Las Piñas City policemen flagged down the Toyota Fortuner and approached the vehicle.
Derilo said Diaz disembarked from the vehicle and tried to shoot the policemen, prompting them to engage the suspect in a shootout.
Recovered from Diaz were a Bushmash M4 firearm and several identification cards with the suspect’s picture on them but with the name “Christian” and with different family names.
Diaz was considered one of the top 10 drug personalities in Central Visayas. But not a single criminal complaint was filed against Diaz in court.
He also had no existing arrest warrant based on the records of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas.
Jaguar presented himself in an interview with a reporter from a local radio station in Cebu last June 12.
He expressed his desire to “surrender” to President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and help authorities arrest other drug personalities. Diaz also apologized to his “victims”, saying he already stopped peddling illegal drugs since last March 2015.
But based on their investigation, Derilo said Diaz was still involved in illegal drug activities.
“Although he lied low in Central Visayas, he was still operating in Negros Island, Region 6 (Western Visayas), Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), and lately in the National Capital Region,” he said.
Derilo said they considered Diaz a “big time drug personality” who dealt with international drug syndicates for his supply of illegal drugs.
Diaz, he said, owned pieces of real property in Las Piñas City and other parts of the country.
“He was respected among his colleagues in the illegal drug trade. There was no police unit in Central Visayas who didn’t hope to arrest Jaguar,” Derilo said.
He, however, admitted that Diaz had connections and protectors in the Philippine National Police and in other government offices.
“He’s been operating for quite some time and yet he doesn’t have any case in court. That’s how influential he was,” Derilo said.
In September 2015, police seized more than P4-million worth of illegal drugs in a raid at a high-walled compound believed to be owned by Diaz in Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City.
Chief Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, police director for Central Visayas, said cases were filed against Diaz but the prosecutors’ office had yet to resolve them.
Last Monday, Comendador challenged Diaz to surrender to the police and execute an extrajudicial confession to make formal his admissions instead of just reporting it to the media.
Comendador believed Diaz presented himself to the media as a changed man since the latter started to feel the pressure following the series of anti-illegal drug operations that killed suspected drug lord Rowen Secretaria and his two alleged cohorts on Banacon Island, Bohol on May 28.
Cebu City Mayor-elect Tomas Osmeña announced Diaz’ death on his official Facebook page midnight of Saturday.
“Cebu’s top drug lord, Jaguar, is dead. Neutralized in a Las Piñas raid by Cebu police less than an hour ago. More details to follow,” Osmeña said in his Facebook post.
The incoming mayor had yet to announce whether or not he would give a cash assistance to the police units who killed Diaz.
Osmeña earlier promised to give P50,000 to policemen who could kill drug lords and other criminals.
So far, he had given cash assistance in at least three batches, the latest was P155,000 for the Secretaria and his two cohorts.