Alleged drug group member nabbed thrice, yields P659,000 ‘shabu’

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Police operatives of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) arrested an alleged member of a drug group in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Tangub here last Monday.

It’s the third apprehension for 48-year-old Zenaida Samodio of Barangay 30 here after police confiscated from her 97 grams of suspected shabu worth P659,600.

Police Captain Joven Mogato, CDEU head, said that intelligence monitoring and revelations from previously arrested drug suspects led them to locate and validate Samodio’s alleged link to the Caunda drug group.

Mogato said the suspect was arrested for the sale of dangerous drugs in 2015, but the case was reportedly dismissed.

In 2022, Samodio was again arrested for illegal possession of dangerous drugs, but she was later released through plea bargaining, Mogato said.

Mogato said that charges for sale and illegal possession of dangerous drugs will be filed against the suspect.

In August 2022, the CDEU also arrested an alleged member of the same group who allegedly yielded P14,382,000 worth of suspected shabu in a drug bust in Barangay Vista Alegre.

In that same month, another suspected member of the same group and her two cohorts were also busted by the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) with P8.8 million worth of suspected shabu in Barangay Singcang-Airport.

Colonel Noel Aliño, BCPO director, had earlier offered a cash reward of P50,000 to P100,000 to anyone who could provide information that could lead to the arrest of a member or leader of the said drug group.

On June 2, the sub-group leader of the Caunda drug group was arrested for drug charges through an arrest warrant in Compostela town in Cebu province.