2 dead after Laguna cops raid drug ‘tiangge’

SAN PEDRO CITY — The alleged leaders of an illegal drug and gun-running group in Laguna province were killed after police raided their hideout in an uphill, remote farmland in San Pablo City.

Supt. Vicente Cabatingan, chief of the Laguna police intelligence unit, on Monday identified those slain as Flores Aram and Edgar Ramos. Aram previously surrendered under the police’s anti-drug campaign, while Ramos had been arrested but released on drug charges.

In a phone interview, Cabatingan said policemen raided the farm lot in Barangay (village) Dolores at about 11 a.m. Sunday and were immediately met with gunfire by the suspects. Aram and Ramos were killed instantly during the encounter while five other suspects escaped.

Cabatingan said the suspects formed the “Posporo Gang,” so-called for keeping illegal drugs inside “posporo” or matchboxes.

“They also built makeshift shanties that served as a drug ‘tiangge’ (flea market) on a farm lot (in Barangay Dolores) about two kilometers from the city proper,” he said.

Cabatingan said residents alerted police about vehicles and tricycles that visited the remote farm lot, especially on weekends and paydays.

“It seemed (Aram and Ramos) intentionally stayed behind to let their other companions escape,” he added.

The police recovered two .45 caliber pistols and “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) stuffed inside several matchboxes, some of them kept in the branches of trees. CBB/rga