Cops nab drug suspect, kill suspected gunman

A buy-bust operation in Medellin town last Sunday turned bloody when one of the suspects tried to shoot it out with policemen.

Joven Senining died after he was shot in the chest by PO3 Reynaldo Solante when he resisted arrest.

Police also arrested William Mercader during the operation. Solante said Mercader was ranked level 1 in their list of suspected drug pushers in the province.

A level 1 pusher can dispose more than a kilo of illegal drugs in a week.

Solante said he moved to another room where Senining was in after the police team neutralized Mercader who was also armed with a .45 pistol.

Solante said he fired when he saw Senining pointing his .45 and KG-9 pistols at him after he opened the door of the room. Solante was armed with an M-16 rifle during the raid.

Senining was rushed to the hospital for treatment but he didn’t reach it alive.

Solante, team leader of the Cebu Provincial Intelligence branch, said two other armed men, whom Mercader identified as a certain Topher and Baki escaped when the shooting started.

Solante and his men also detained five minors who were at the sala of the house during the operation.

suspect’s claims

Mercader said the minors were runners in their drug business.

He also said that he hired Senining, Topher, and Baki to protect his family from his rivals in the drug trade.

Solante said they moved in after Mercader handed a sachet believed to contain shabu to a policeman posing as a buyer of illegal drugs inside the two-room house in sitio Navarra, barangay Canhabagat.

drugs, guns, ammo

Police also confiscated two 85 packs believed to contain shabu, two P500 bills, a digital weighing scale, an electronic sealer, several pieces of rolled aluminum foil, empty plastic sachets, two improvised filler, an improvised burner, six cell phones, a KG-9 machine pistol, a banana-type magazine, two .45 caliber pistols, a black widow caliber .22, and ammunition of different firearms./Correspondent Gabriel C. Bonjoc