Drug lord’s cohort, two others nabbed in Talisay drug bust

Drug suspects Eugenio Añora, Joseph Bacho and Rosendo Dominguez were presented to media along with the drugs and firearms seized from their possession by operatives of the Regional Special Operations Group (CDN Photo/Junjie Mendoza).

A cohort of suspected drug lord Franz Sabalones and two others were arrested in a drug bust in Barangay Cansojong, Talisay City, southern Cebu last Sunday evening.

Rosendo Dominguez, 41; Titos Joseph Bacho, 26; and Eugenio Añora, 22, surrendered to operatives of the Regional Special Operations Group inside Dominguez’s house.

Recovered from their possession were 0.07 grams of shabu worth P82,000, one .45 pistol and one KG submachine gun.

Dominguez admitted he used to get his supply of shabu from Sabalones, a Cebu-based drug lord who recently surrendered to authorities.

But he claimed that he quit dealing drugs out of fear that he might be killed.

“Nahadlok ko kay uso kaayo ang patay ron (I fear for my life because drug-related killings have become so rampant),” he said.

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said it is not enough to surrender to authorities.

“They should stay away from illegal drugs. To surrender to authorities does not mean they were already cleared of any involvement in illegal drugs. We continue to monitor them,” he said.

Despite the government’s relentless campaign against illegal drugs, Taliño said there are still people who refused to stop engaging in the illegal trade.

“Nonetheless, we noted a decrease in the supply as shown by the increase in prices of shabu,” he said.

Taliño said based on their monitoring, the price of shabu in Central Visayas tripled.

In Barangay Pakna-an, Mandaue City, police arrested a couple in their home where found in their possession were drug paraphernalia, P100,000 in shabu and P28,000 in cash proceeds.

The suspects were identified as 44-year-old William Tantan and 41-year-old Maricel Alforque, both residents of Zone Paliya in Barangay Pakna-an.

They are detained at the Centro police precinct pending the filing of charges against them in court.

Supt. Melbert Glade Esguerra, chief of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO), served the search warrant to the couple, who were said to be high-value targets (HVT) by the Mandaue police.

At the Cebu City Jail, a kitchen employee was arrested by jail personnel for delivering drugs to an inmate at 8:30 a.m. yesterday.

Josephino Oliverio reportedly gave the drugs to 29-year-old inmate Reynaldo Torrefiel Jr., a resident of Barangay Ermita, Cebu City.

Torrefiel yielded the drugs in a strip search after catching the attention of jail supervisor Alex Salutan.

Taken from his possession were 25 small sachets and one medium-size plastic believed to contain shabu and two cell phones.