P8M worth of ‘shabu’ seized from gun-for-hire in Iloilo

ILOILO CITY—At least a kilo of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) worth about P8 million was seized allegedly from a former village chief in a raid on Saturday in Pototan town, about 28 kilometers from this city.

Ramon Platon, former barangay captain of Intauan in Pototan, was detained at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Western Visayas (PDEA-6) office in Iloilo City pending the filing of charges.

Levi Ortiz, PDEA-6 assistant director, said Platon had pending double murder cases but he didn’t know if the suspect was out on bail or had a standing arrest warrant.

But he said Platon was a gun-for-hire and was allegedly involved in several kidnapping, murder and robbery cases.

Ortiz said Platon topped the list of high value targets for Iloilo province. He used to get his drugs from the Odicta and Prevendido groups but shifted to Mindanao and Cebu when the couple Melvin and Miriam Odicta of Odicta group was killed and Richard Prevendido of the Prevendido group went into hiding.

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Armed with a search warrant, a team from PDEA-6 stormed into the house of Platon in Intauan about 6 a.m. on Saturday.

“When the raiding team entered, they saw the suspect throwing a bag out of the window. The neighbor did not touch the bag because of fear. When we requested that we be allowed to get inside the other house to check the bag, we found out that it contained about a kilo of suspected shabu,” Ortiz said in an interview over RMN Iloilo.