Cop nabbed in Davao del Sur drug buy-bust operation

BANSALAN, Davao del Sur – A rookie policeman is the latest to fall in an intensified anti-drugs campaign in the province.

Since the start of the month, over a dozen people have been arrested and over P2 million worth of shabu or metamphetamine hydrochloride seized in line with an order given by Gov. Claude Bautista for police to eliminate the drug problem in the province by the end of September.

Senior Supt. Michael John Dubria, chief of the Southern Mindanao police’s regional intelligence division, said agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Davao del Sur Provincial Anti-illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Force arrested P01 Ronald Banderas in a buy-bust operation on Tuesday evening.

Dubria said Banderas yielded two sachets of shabu when accosted by the authorities agents.

Senior Supt. Ronaldo Llanera, Davao del Sur police director, said Banderas was already facing an administrative case prior to his arrest.

Llanera said the authorities were also investigating why Banderas was able to get out of the Regional Holding and Accounting Unit of the Southern Mindanao police office in Davao City to which he had been restricted in connection with the unspecified administrative case.

Bautista said the arrest of the rookie policeman should serve as warning to other law officers who may be involved in the illegal drugs trade.

“If you violate the law, you’re in our list of targets for arrest,” Dubria said.