BUSTED!

P39 MILLION SHABU SIEZED

Police put on display the packs of shabu totaling 3.3 kilos and valued at P39 million that were seized from drug suspect Jeffrey Jade Cabaron’s apartment in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018. | CDN photo Benjie Talisic

By all appearances, Jeffrey Jade Cabaron, only 26 years old, seemed like an ordinary young man.

He lived quietly in an apartment rented for P15,000 a month in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City.

It turned out that Cabaron is engaged in a dangerous job as a drug courier, running all over Cebu City and its neighboring areas to deliver drugs by the hundred thousand pesos. Yet, for all his effort, he was reportedly only getting P10 per delivery.

Yesterday, the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) caught up with Cabaron and found him in possession of a staggering stash of shabu (crystal meth) totaling 3.3 kilograms when his apartment in San Jose Extension, Sitio Caimito, Barangay Tisa was
raided by the police past 1 a.m. on Sunday. Its total value: P39 million.

It was the biggest haul for the Cebu City police since Senior Supt. Royina Garma assumed as CCPO chief last July. Garma immediately proceeded to the area following the discovery of the big amount of drugs.

Cabaron is now considered by authorities as a level 1 high value target drug personality in Cebu City.

Chief Insp. Regino Maramag, the head of the Pardo Police Precinct (7) who led the operation, said Cabaron has been under surveillance for about a month after a number of arrested small time drug peddlers and users pointed to him as their drug source.

After a careful planning, the buy bust operation was executed Sunday at the parking lot of Cabaron’s rented apartment.

Maramag said they were hoping to get as well Cabaron’s “boss” but the person had fled before the drug bust was concluded. But Maramag was confident they would get the drug source soon.

Maramag said Cabaron, while insisting he was only a courier, could be considered a high value target since he has knowledge about the deliveries and who were the personalities who received the drugs.

Maramag said they were hoping that Cabaron would cooperate with the police when he would undergo
another round of questioning today, November 19.

Aside from being a drug courier, Cabaron has no other known job, according to Maramag.

Garma, meanwhile, noted that big time drug operators seemed to have been using this kind of modus – hiring a jobless person from another barangay to do the dirty work for them.

Garma noted that Cabaron is actually a resident of Sitio Mahayahay, Barangay Suba Pasil, Cebu City.

Garma believed the drugs came from outside of Central Visayas and they hoped to find out where
exactly it came from after questioning Cabaron.

‘Online business’
Following the arrest of Cabaron, the village officials of Tisa will now require lessors to conduct background checking and submit the profiles of their lessees before admitting them to their properties.

Tisa Barangay Captain Phillip Zafra said it should be a moral obligation of those who are in the
business of leasing apartments or rooms “to help preserve our peace and order.”

Zafra said that upon conducting a follow up investigation after the arrest of Cabaron, they found that the suspect was an identified drug personality of Barangay Suba Pasil.

“Connected gyud na siya sa mga alleged drug personalities didto (Suba Pasil). Taud-taod na daw na nga wala na didto nagsige na na sila og balhin-balhin. Maybe because of the intensified nga campaign against drugs di na sila mag-stay longer sa usa ka lugar,”

Zafra told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview.
(He is connected to alleged drug personalities [in Suba Pasil]. He has not been seen there for a while now and was mostly moving from one place to another. Maybe because of the intensified campaign against drugs he would no longer stay in one place.)

Zafra said Cabaron has been living in the Tisa apartment for just about a month.

He said they were now investigating who were his contacts while staying in Tisa.

One of Cabaron’s neighbors in the same apartment compound, told Cebu Daily News that there were three persons living in the apartment, including Cabaron.

“Siguro mga one month paman siguro na sila nga nag puyo dinha (They have been living for just about a month),” the neighbor said.

The neighbor said several individuals would often come to Cabaron’s apartment at night.

The neighbor recalled having a conversation once with Cabaron and was told that the latter was operating an “online business.”

Barangay infocast
Although thankful that the illegal drugs were confiscated before these were distributed, Zafra was incensed that a level one drug personality was operating in his village.

Zafra urged his constituents to utilize their barangay-based infocast or text line to report illegal activities in their communities.

“Dako kaayo iyang gamit unta kung mohatag og pagsalig ang atong mga kaigsuonan (I trust our
residents). I assure them we will keep their identity confidential, ” Zafra said.

Zafra said now is also the best time for the city government to convene the Dangerous Drugs
Administrative Board (DDAB).

The DDAB, which was created via an ordinance authored by Zafra when he was an ex-officio member of the city council representing the city’s Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), has the power to shutter structures, including houses, where drug activities occured.

“Nindot nga naay gahom ang maong board nga ipasira gyod ang mga balay for at most one year. Ang tag-iya dili kasulod, maangin tanan. In that sense, maningkamot pod ang mga kauban sa balay nga badlongon ilang family members who are into drug use nga moundang gyud. (The board has the power to close down the house for at most a year. Even the owners could not go inside. Since everyone will be affected, other family members will ensure that anyone in the household will refrain from engaging in the illegal drug trade.) This is also their responsibility to help the government address the problem,” Zafra said.

DDAB, which was passed in July, is chaired by the city mayor and composed of the ABC president, the chairman of the city council’s committee on public order and safety, CCPO director, the regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the city health officer, city legal officer, and representatives from the academe and private sector.