26 drug users rounded up from Iloilo mansion

ILOILO CITY—At least 26 alleged drug users were rounded up in an operation conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Western Visayas (PDEA-6) on Friday morning in Zone 2, Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao district in this city.

Paul Ledesma, PDEA-6 director, said the suspects were collared inside an abandoned house dubbed as “mansion.”

The suspects were detained at a PDEA detention cell and would be subjected to a drug test before charges would be filed.

Several sachets of “shabu” and drug paraphernalia were found inside the house owned by Ariane Orbe, who Ledesma described as a “known drug personality” in the area.

“This structure was raided last year and was closed and abandoned. But Orbe reopened it and improved the facility,” Ledesma said.

While it looked like an ordinary house made of cement and plywood on the outside, the inside of the house had been renovated. Its floors were tiled while each of the three rooms had tables and chairs. The rooms were used for pot sessions.

Inside the house was a handwritten note posted on the wall—“minimum P150, wala P100”—which meant the minimum price for a small sachet of shabu was P150 and no longer P100.

Ledesma said Orbe earned well from the drug trade.

“If the wholesale five-gram sachet of shabu costs P18,000 and you buy it here in retail, a gram is sold at P7,000. Imagine how big their income is,” Ledesma said.

Ledesma will propose to the Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council to pass a resolution recommending the demolition of the structure.