Ex-cop, coffee shop chef caught in separate shabu buy-busts by PDEA
MANILA, Philippines — A former policeman was arrested in South Cotabato last week for allegedly selling shabu to anti-narcotics agents.
Lamsani Bernabe, 44, a former police officer 1, was arrested by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on October 9 in a buy-bust operation in his neighborhood in Koronadal City.
Police learned that the ex-lawman was previously assigned to the Cotabato City police office.
PDEA Director General Arturo Cacdac Jr. said the buy-bust was carried out in the suspect’s neighborhood in Maranion Village, Barangay Zone III in the city.
Anti-narcotics agents arrested Bernabe at around 12:30 a.m. of October 9 as he handed over 20 grams of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to the agents, who paid him P1,000 in marked money.
A day later, a chef of a coffee shop in Quezon City was arrested in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro.
The suspect, Chester Montealto, 36, is a resident of Barangay (village) Culiat in Quezon City but hails from Bansud town in Oriental Mindoro.
Cacdac said the suspect was employed as a chef of Coffee Empire, a coffee shop along West Avenue in Quezon City.
Montealto was arrested last October 10 at around 8:30 p.m. near the Sweet Care Hotel in Calapan City with 50 grams of shabu in his possession.
Also recovered from him was the P500 marked money used in the operation.
Cacdac said both men would be charged with drug peddling and possession under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
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