Suspected drug pusher slain in Lucena buy bust

LUCENA CITY – An alleged drug pusher was killed, the fourth in a week, in another police buy-bust operation here early Friday.

Supt. Romulo Albacea, Lucena police chief, reported that combined anti-illegal drugs operatives from the city and provincial police conducted a buy-bust operation in Barangay (village) Ibabang Dupay at 6:20 a.m.

An armed encounter ensued after the target, Jerry Casimiro, reportedly shot at the authorities using a caliber .38 revolver when he sensed that he was dealing with an undercover cop. Policemen were forced to return fire, killing the suspect, Albacea said.

Investigators recovered Casimiro’s firearm loaded with four bullets, eight plastic sachets of crystal meth (shabu), P1,000 marked money used in the transaction and a mobile phone that showed the exchanges of text messages between a shabu buyer and the slain suspect.

On Wednesday, two brothers, Jerome and Jeffrey Masalunga, suspected as illegal drug distributors, were also killed in a police operation in Barangay 10.

Last Sunday, police also killed Mark June Ibañez alias “Dom”, alleged number two among Lucena’s drug watch list, in another operation in Barangay Cotta.