Drug suspect slain, trader held in Tagum City anti-drug operations

TAGUM CITY – A drug suspect was killed and a trader was arrested during an anti-drug operation here on Friday, authorities said.

The still unidentified armed man was killed in a shootout with policemen at Purok (Community) Durian, Sitio (Sub-village) Bacuring, Barangay (Village) Madaum past 4 a.m., Senior Supt. Alan Manibog, Davao del Norte police chief, said.

Chief Insp. Milgrace Driz, spokesperson of the Southern Mindanao Police Office, said the shootout took place while elements of the Tagum City police, under Supt. Julius Borja, carried out anti-drug operations in Bacuring.

“The motorcycle-riding suspect attempted to avoid one of the roadblocks set up by police by driving away, and then opened fire, prompting the lawmen to retaliate,” Driz, quoting a report from the Tagum police said.

The suspect fell off the motorcycle after he was apparently hit but made his way to a grassy area, where he continued exchanging fire with authorities until he was eventually shot dead, the police spokesperson said.

Recovered from the slain suspect were a Beretta .9-millimeter pistol with defaced serial number and loaded with six bullets, a jungle bolo, a red canister with big heat-sealed sachet of suspected crystal meth (shabu), a sachet with meth residues, a brown pouch with three .9-mm bullets and a hat with “PHIL ARMY” markings.

Also recovered at the scene were 14 empty shells for .9-mm bullets.

Police manning another checkpoint arrested businessman Christopher Donayre, 33, after lawmen found a cal. 45 pistol and a magazine with four rounds of ammunition inside his brown Toyota Fortuner.

Driz said the trader was driving from the direction of the encounter site when he was flagged down.

Bacuring has been tagged by police as a lair of drug personalities.

The seaside community has been raided several times in the past, the biggest in 2016, when over 200 police and anti-drug agents as well as from the Army, swooped on the semi-forested community.

That operation led to the death of two suspects and the wounding of several others, as well as the seizure of over P1 million worth of meth and marijuana.

A policeman who participated in that anti-drug sweep was later arrested by his colleagues for allegedly trying to conceal some of the recovered drugs.