Barangay official in Bohol arrested for selling shabu

Police in Valencia, Bohol, have arrested village councilman Arwin Maisa Tagupa after the official allegedly sold P500 worth of shabu to an poseur-buyer. The undated file photo shows a policeman holding a packet of shabu, technically called methamphetamine hydrochloride, seized during another earlier drug bust. INQUIRER FILES

VALENCIA, Bohol, Philippines — A village councilman of Barangay Anonang here was arrested in a buy-bust operation on Monday.

SPO1 Gregorio Tubio, investigator of Valencia police station, identified the councilman as Arwin Maisa Tagupa, 39, who was arrested at about 3:30 a.m. on Monday.

According to Tubio, Tagupa is in their station’s watchlist of notorious drug users and pushers in the town.

“He is number 3 on our target list,” he said.

Tubio said Tagupa did not yield under Oplan Tokhang which prompted the police to conduct an operation against him.

“We learned that he hadn’t stopped selling shabu over the past two weeks,” he added.

During the operation, police said they were able to buy from the councilman a sachet of shabu worth P500. After the bust, they recovered the P500 marked money from Tagupa and seized four more sachets of suspected illegal drugs.

Tagupa, who is detained in this town’s police station, is facing criminal charges for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002./rga