CEBU CITY — Anti-narcotics operatives arrested an alleged big-time drug peddler and seized an estimated P4 million worth of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) in buy-bust operation inside Ayala Center Cebu around 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Jerome Sosmeña, 31-year-old resident of Barrio Luz in Cebu City, reportedly supplied illegal drugs to members of the group of slain drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz, said Yogi Filemon Ruiz, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7).
Found inside his waist bag were a kilo of shabu , a weighing scale, and several money transfer receipts.
Police also seized Sosmeña’s cellular phone and motorcycle.
In an interview, Ruiz said Sosmeña’s name would always crop up during drug investigations.
“After a series of arrests, his name always appeared in our investigations,” Ruiz said at a news conference on Friday. “And so we immediately hatched an entrapment operation to arrest him.”
Before meeting with the poseur buyer, Ruiz said Sosmeña asked them to take photographs of the money and send them via Viber, an online messaging application, to make sure they were authentic.
Sosmeña agreed to meet the undercover agent at a mall near Cebu City’s seaport.
But the suspect later on changed his mind and asked the agent to go to Ayala Center Cebu.
“Maybe, he thought he was safe inside the mall,” Ruiz said. “He did not know that law enforcers are now closely coordinating with security officers of the different malls in the conduct of our anti-illegal drugs operation.”
After the transaction had been completed, PDEA-7 agents then arrested Sosmeña.
Based on their investigation, Ruiz said Sosmeña got his supply of shabu from a source in Muntinlupa City.
“He is a big-time peddler,” Ruiz said. “We found out that he recently supplied shabu to member of Jaguar’s group.”
Ruiz said they would conduct further investigations to find out Sosmeña’s contacts and customers.
“The prominent drug players are gone. Now, he [Sosmeña] is taking over them,” he said.
Ruiz said they are also investigation who replaced Jaguar in the drug group.
Jaguar was killed in a police operation in Las Piñas City last June 17.
“Sosmeña’s arrest surely crippled their operations,” Ruiz said. “But knowing the group, someone will surely take over his post. And so, there will be no let up in our campaign against illegal drugs.”
Inside the PDEA-7 stockade, Sosmeña denied the allegations against him, saying he didn’t know Diaz personally and didn’t supply drugs to him.
His friend Cheryl Traya said she was surprised when she learned that Sosmeña had been arrested.
“He is a good man. We were really shocked,” she said while standing outside the detention cell.
Traya said Sosmeña was a youth leader at the St. Joseph’s Parish in Mabolo and in Barrio Luz.
Sosmeña served as a job order employee of the Cebu City Hall in 2012 but decided to resign after almost a year.