Another ‘cohort’ of slain drug lord Jaguar Diaz nabbed

CEBU CITY — Police arrested another cohort of slain drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz in an operation in Barangay Langtad, City of Naga, south Cebu on Sunday morning.

Alan Tabalin, 51, did not resist arrest when operatives served an arrest warrant issued in April 2016 by Judge James Stewart Ramon Himalaloan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 57 in Cebu City.  Tabalin is facing charges for violating Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Senior Insp. Eduard Sanchez, chief of the Mambaling police station, said different law enforcement units had looked for Tabalin whom they described as “very elusive.”

“He (Tabalin) kept on transferring from one place to another. But we finally caught him. He could hardly escape due to the number of operatives who took part in the operation,” he told reporters.

Aside from the Mambaling police, operatives of the Provincial Intelligence Branch, and the Naga City police joined the operation that led to Tabalin’s arrest.

The suspect served as Diaz’s drug courier and pusher, Sanchez said.

Tabalin’s arrest came four days after the Cebu City intelligence branch and the Cebu City Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Team arrested Joselito “Otik” Arellano, who reportedly served as Diaz’s bodyguard, driver, and right hand man.

He was arrested by the police soon after he left his mother’s residence in Barangay Basak San Nicolas, Cebu City.

Tabalin, on the other hand, was in a house in the city of Naga when police arrested him.

In an interview at the stockade of the Mambaling police station, Tabalin said he hid when he learned that an arrest warrant was issued against him.

He said he also feared for his life when then Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte assumed power as President.

“I was afraid I might get killed,” he said.

Tabalin, a native of Barangay Mambaling, admitted he used to work as a drug courier when Diaz was alive.

He said he left the group when Diaz was killed in a police operation in Las Piñas City last June 17.

Tabalin refused to elaborate.

Senior Inspector Sanchez said Tabalin’s cousin Sophia was on their drug watch list but surrendered during Oplan Tokhang, a campaign wherein policemen would knock on the door of drug suspects and encouraged them to surrender.  SFM/rga