Kerwin Espinosa aide yields, turns over P24-M ‘shabu’

ALBUERA, Leyte—The alleged right hand man of Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr., said to be the biggest drug lord in Eastern Visayas, surrendered on Friday and turned over P24 million worth of “shabu.”

Max Miro turned himself to Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, Albuera police chief, on Friday morning.

Espenido assured Miro that no case would be filed against him because he decided to surrender.

Aside from turning over his 9 mm pistol, Miro led Espenido to where he hid the three kilos of shabu.

The illegal substance was found inside a hiding place beneath one of the drawers inside his room in Sitio Tinago 1, Barangay Benolho, Albuera town.

Miro told the police that he hid the shabu on orders of Espinosa before he left Albuera.

The shabu was part of the stash of illegal drugs that were eventually found inside the house of Espinosa’s father, Mayor Rolando Sr., in the latter’s house also in Benolho.

The police found 11 kilos of shabu during a raid in the mayor’s residence last month.

Miro explained that he decided to surrender because he got tired of hiding.

He said he went home in Cebu after two of the mayor’s bodyguards and three employees of the Espinosas were arrested in a drug bust on July 28 outside the younger Espinosa’s house.

He said that he was inside the house of the mayor when the operation was conducted.

Miro said he later went to Ormoc City, Leyte, when the police left.

From Ormoc, he went to Cebu where he hid for a month before staying with his relatives in Davao.

Earlier this week, he went back to Albuera and decided to give himself up./rga