STERN WARNING. Suspects Vinch Neil Arnaiz (left), 27, and Jessie Llanos Caballero, 27, cover their faces after their arrest on C. Padilla St., Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City on Sunday night (Nov. 28, 2021). Cebu City Police Office Director Col. Josefino Ligan on Monday (Nov. 29) reiterated his stern warning to drug personalities of being arrested or killed if they would not stop their illegal activities. (Photo courtesy of Eric Amaro)
CEBU CITY – The top police official here on Monday renewed his stern warning to drug syndicates operating in the capital city of being killed or thrown in jail if they would not stop their illegal activities.
This, as two drug suspects yielded a total of PHP13.7-million worth of illegal drugs believed to be shabu in a Sunday night sting operation.
Col. Josefino Ligan, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) director, said the arrest of Vinch Neil Arnaiz alias Baloy, 27, a driver, of Barangay Duljo-Fatima and Jessie Llanos Caballero alias Pogi, 27, also a driver and resident of Barangay Quiot, sets a strong signal to the remaining drug traders here that the government is relentless in its anti-drug campaign.
Ligan told reporters that Arnaiz was serving as “bodegero” or warehouseman of drug syndicate members who are operating in the jail but became known to the intelligence community when he, in a previous test-buy operation, sold to a police decoy a sachet of shabu.
He said the group of Lt. Col. Clark Arreola of the CCPO’s Intelligence Unit and Major Jonathan Taneo of the Drug Enforcement Unit managed to buy from Arnaiz a huge volume of shabu during the buy-bust operation along C. Padilla St.
“Because of his eagerness to profit more, he agreed to sell a larger amount of drugs. Had he stuck to being a warehouseman of his boss, he would not have been arrested,” Ligan said in Cebuano.
In a report submitted to CCPO, Taneo described Arnaiz as a “high valued individual” in the regional drug watchlist. But Ligan said the suspect could only dispose of his illegal drug supply to neighboring localities in Metro Cebu.
The police operatives seized from the two suspects illegal drugs suspected to be shabu weighing over two kilograms with an estimated street value of PHP13.77 million.
They are facing charges for violating Republic Act 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Ligan said the city police is now conducting an investigation to identify Arnaiz’s source of illegal drug supply and his colleagues in the drug syndicate.
“The police is uncompromising in its anti-drug operation so that those who are still in the drug business will get arrested soon. To those who are thinking of fighting back against the police operatives, we are ready to face you. You better stop or else you’ll get arrested if not killed,” he warned. (PNA)
