19 drug suspects nabbed in Iloilo City

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — At least 19 drug suspects were arrested in a series of operations that started at 6 p.m. on Wednesday and lasted until early morning of Thursday.

Seven of those arrested were for possession of illegal drugs while three were also nabbed for illegal possession of firearms. Nine others were also wanted for various crimes.

The operations, dubbed as “One time, big time,” were conducted by more than 150 personnel from the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Iloilo City Task Forces.

Seized were 52 sachets of suspected shabu  and three firearms.

Supt. Ipil Dueñas, Deputy City Director for administration of the Iloilo City Police Office, said the operations were conducted to catch the criminals off guard.

“This is a 36-hour massive simultaneous operations all over the city. We will see what the result would be. This will be our best practice and will be replicated once proven successful,” Dueñas said.

One of the operations was conducted inside the Iloilo Terminal Market in City Proper, the biggest public market of the city, where 21 sachets of shabu were seized from a 23-year-old suspect identified as  Alvin Gabriel of Antique.

Senior Insp. Jojo Tabaloc, police precinct one chief, described Gabriel as a member of a big-time drug group operating in the city.   SFM