ILOILO CITY -- A high-value target (HVT) drug suspect was killed in a buy-bust operation in Pavia, Iloilo on Wednesday afternoon.
Richard Gregori, 40, succumbed to two gunshot wounds, said Chief Inspector Ferdinand Limbungan, chief of the Pavia Municipal Police Station (MPS), in an interview Thursday.
The suspect reportedly fired at Chief Inspector Jonathan Pinuela, who posed as the buyer during the operation, but missed prompting the latter to retaliate.
Pinuela is the chief of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office’s Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU) who led the said buy-bust operation in coordination with Pavia MPS.
Recovered from the slain suspect were a caliber .45 pistol and a sachet containing five grams of suspected shabu, which was supposed to be bought by the undercover cop for PHP25,000.
Gregori was listed as level 2 high-value target drug suspect by the PDEU and believed to be the downline of slain Western Visayas’s drug lord Richard Prevendido.
Limbungan said Gregori was also on their watch list and they had been receiving reports about his ongoing transactions.
Gregori is also a relative of slain village chief Remia Gregori of Bakhaw, Mandurriao District. Remia was killed by unidentified gunmen in San Joaquin, Iloilo last June.
Limbungan said the neutralization of Gregori will bring “big impact” in their town. “Definitely, his downline will also lie-low,” he said.
At 11 a.m. of the same day, agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Western Visayas (PDEA-6) raided the house of 37-year-old drug suspect, Ryan Jablo, in Barangay San Isidro, Jaro, this city.
Recovered from his house were five sachets of suspected shabu worth PHP175,000.
PDEA-6 classified Jablo as high value target belonging to the Prevendido drug group.
Richard Prevendido was Western Visayas’ most wanted man and drug lord, who was slain in a police operation here last year.
Jablo is at the detention facility of PDEA-6 in Fort San Pedro, Iloilo City and facing charges of violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. (PNA)
