‘Drug dealer’ with ties to Bilibid ‘lords’ shot dead in QC

Drug bust turns into fatal shootout. (RADYO INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/JONG MANLAPAZ)

MANILA — An alleged drug dealer with a supposed connection to Bilibid drug lords died on Thursday morning in Quezon City, after he shot it out with authorities whom he tried to bribe for a light drug offense against his girlfriend caught in a drug bust last week.

Renan Roque, who managed to escape a drug bust operation on Saturday, wasn’t as lucky this time in evading arrest as authorities gunned him down in what was supposed to be an entrapment operation along Kalayaan Avenue corner Kamias Road in Barangay Pinyahan at around 1:35 a.m. on Thursday.

Senior Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, the Quezon City Police District’s director, said that Roque was the subject of an entrapment operation of their District Special Operations Unit, after he tried to bribe policemen P50,000 to junk their case of selling illegal drugs against his month-long girlfriend, Mariel Ann Go.

Go earlier told police that her former boyfriend paid authorities in Pasig City P60,000 to junk a similar charge.

Through an undisclosed civilian middleman, Roque negotiated the release of his girlfriend, who was arrested on Saturday in a drug bust at the corner of Narra and Almon Streets in Barangay Claro. Roque managed to evade arrest then as he sped off onboard his car.

Eleazar said that in exchange for money, Roque wanted the police to drop its charge against Go for selling illegal drugs and just retain its case of possession of illegal drugs, a bailable offense.

When Roque met with the police at a hamburger joint past midnight, Eleazar said that the suspect, who alighted from a cab sensed the presence of police officers, tried to run and fired shots at the policemen, who returned fire.

The suspect sustained six gunshot wounds in the body and was brought to the East Avenue Medical Center for treatment but was pronounced dead on arrival. Authorities recovered from the suspect a .45-caliber pistol and a belt bag with two mobile phones, P20,000 cash and five sachets believed to contain methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu.”

Eleazar said that as of Thursday, they were still verifying information on Roque’s connection with convicted drug lords Hans Tan, Lawrence Yu and Herbert Colangco, all tagged as the “Bilibid 19,” a group of high-profile inmates at the New Bilibid Prisons, convicted for major crimes but given illegal perks and privileges that enabled them to live luxuriously inside prison.  SFM