Cebu cops seize P42.1M in ‘shabu,’ arrest of 3 suspects

CEBU CITY — Police operations on Christmas Day in the city brought in a total of P42.1 million worth of “shabu,” or crystal meth, and three suspects.

At the village of Basak Pardo, police seized at least P40.8 million worth of shabu from the house of Reji Abesia, 24, during a buy-bust operation.

Chief Insp. Henrix Bancoleta, who led the operation, said Abesia had rented a house in Basak Pardo believing his drug operations in the village would not be detected because the suspect was originally from the village of Pasil.

Right timing

Abesia, according to Bancoleta, wanted to run his drug trade from a different village where he was not known.

“What he did not know was that we have been monitoring him for some time now,” Bancoleta said.

When agents found that Abesia had rented a house in Basak Pardo, Bancoleta said they just waited for the right timing before they launched the operation.

Abesia, speaking to Cebu Daily News (sister publication of Inquirer), insisted that he was just a courier for a drug source known to him only as “Lebron.”

Abesia insisted he had not met with Lebron and communicated with the source only by phone.

Abesia claimed he got a weekly salary of only P2,500 from Lebron and had so far disposed of at least 50 kilograms of shabu.

Arrests

A few hours after cornering Abesia, police also collared two drug personalities who yielded at least P1.3 million worth of shabu.

Arrested were Michael Ceniza, 39, and his live-in partner, Remelyn Fernandez, 33, both residents of Pasil village.

Police were targeting only Ceniza in the buy-bust operation, but his partner was found to be carrying a bigger amount of shabu.

Ceniza had yielded some P108,000 worth of shabu to police.

Abesia and Ceniza were detained at the San Nicolas police precinct, while Fernandez was locked up inside a jail of the Cebu City police office.