CEBU CITY — A former local beauty pageant candidate and a young man were arrested in separate drug busts at dawn on Saturday for allegedly selling party drugs and posession of high-grade marijuana.
The arrest of Teri Marina Silva Colmenares, or Tery, 22, came after she was identified as the source of the party drugs that were believed used in a date-rape case.
Colmenares was a candidate of the 2018 Binibining Cebu pageant representing Carmen town.
Senior Insp. Dexter Basirgo, chief of the Guadalupe police precinct that conducted the operations, said police started tracking down Colmenares on Dec. 8, when a complaint was filed by a woman who reported that she was molested twice by a disc jockey at a restaurant after she was drugged.
Confession
The rape suspect, following his arrest, confessed to authorities where he got the party drugs.
The drug enforcement unit of the Guadalupe police, at dawn on Saturday conducted a buy-bust operation and arrested the alleged party drug source, Nicole Allan Casiño, 24, in Salinas Drive at the village of Lahug, Cebu City.
Casiño lives in the village of Kamputhaw, Cebu City, but he is a native of Cagayan de Oro City.
Casiño, in turn, led police to Colmenares who was caught with high-grade marijuana disguised as fruit pops.
Colmenares was handcuffed following the buy-bust operation on Escario Street in Kamputhaw.
Basirgo said Colmenares used a fake identification card, and it was only after her arrest that police discovered her real identity.
Unlucky ones
Other drug suspects were not as lucky as Casiño and Colmenares to stay alive.
In Iloilo City, a tricycle driver, who had surrendered as a pusher to police, was killed by motorcycle-riding men at the village of Rima-Rizal.
Nestor Piagola Jr., 33, was waiting for passengers when the assailants came.
Supt. Jonathan Pablito, of the Iloilo City police precinct 1, said Piagola had surrendered as a pusher and graduated from a police rehabilitation program.
Piagola’s father is detained at New Bilibid Prison after being convicted of an unspecified drug offense. —WITH A REPORT FROM JOEL FRANCO