THE world has gotten smaller for the associates of slain alleged drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz.
Lito Belandres, the top drug personality in Negros Oriental and an alleged associate of Jaguar, was killed in what the police said was a shootout in Barangay Canday-ong, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental past 8 a.m. on Friday less than 24 hours after the inauguration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Senior Supt. Harris Fama, acting provincial director of Negros Oriental, said that when Jaguar was killed in a shootout in Las Piñas City on June 17, Belandres went into hiding in Dumaguete from his base in the southern Cebu town of Oslob to avoid Cebu policemen who might be hunting down Jaguar’s cohorts.
He apparently did not know that the Negros Oriental police were also hot on his trail after they listed him as the number one drug personality in the province.
“We were operating (independently from Cebu police). (Belandres) was on top of our list, so we were also focused on him,” he said in a phone interview on Friday.
Although he was based in Oslob, Belandres allegedly distributed drugs not just in the adjoining Oslob and Santander towns but also in Dumaguete and several towns in Negros Oriental.
Negros Oriental, through the port in Sibulan town, is just 45 minutes by pump boat from Santander.
Fama said Belandres was a level 2 drug pusher who could dispose of about 200 grams to a kilo of shabu weekly.
Sources said Belandres got his supply from Jaguar who had connections with a big drug syndicate operating from inside the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.
After Jaguar was killed, Belandres went back to Dumaguete, where he owned a mansion that overlooks the sea.
Intelligence agents who tracked down his whereabouts, applied and got a search a warrant from a local court and raided his posh property at 8:15 a.m. on Friday. But Belandres reportedly fought back and was killed in an ensuing firefight.
Police recovered shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and firearms from the residence, according to the initial report released by the Negros Oriental police.
Although the operation was not intended to be timed right after President Duterte’s inauguration, Fama said it became a sort of a welcome gift for the new President.