’Drug cop’ slain in Laguna buy-bust

Police Officer 3 Jennyson Soriano lies on the ground after he was gunned down in an anti-drug operation in Laguna on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. (Photo courtesy of Laguna Provincial Police Office)

SAN PEDRO CITY — A policeman assigned at the Laguna police headquarters in Sta. Cruz town was killed in an anti-drug operation on Friday morning.

Police Officer 3 Jennyson Soriano, 45, a resident of Pagsanjan town, had been involved in the narcotics trade, particularly in the fourth district of the province and acted either as “pusher or protector,” Laguna police director Sr. Supt. Eleazar Matta said.

“(Soriano was assigned) here in my headquarters as (part of the) base police,” Matta said in a text message.

Soriano also allegedly carried the alias “Sir” in the illegal drugs trade.

Soriano’s fellow police officers from the Laguna intelligence unit conducted a buy-bust operation around 8:30 a.m. Friday in Barangay (village) Bubukal, Sta. Cruz, just near the provincial police camp, Matta said.

According to the police report, Soriano sold about five grams of suspected “shabu” (crystal meth) worth P7,000 to an undercover police officer but must have quickly realized it was a sting operation.

Soriano allegedly pulled out his service firearm, a .9mm-caliber gun, prompting law enforcers to shoot him down.

Soriano was off-duty when the buy-bust happened. Maricar Cinco/lzb