Drug group member yields P14.3-M ‘shabu’

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Around two kilos and 115 grams of suspected shabu worth P14,382,000 were seized from an alleged member of a drug group at Purok Pablo Torre, Barangay Vista Alegre here yesterday.

Operatives of the City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU) and Police Station 7 busted Michael Frias, 45, of the said village.

According to the police, the suspect is a high value individual and an alleged member of the Caunda drug group.

Police also confiscated from him a digital weighing scale, the P10,000 marked money, and P220.

Police Captain Joven Mogato, CDEU head, said the suspect was arrested for a drug offense in 2009.

He served 10 years at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City and was released in 2019 after the case was reportedly dismissed when he appealed his case in court.

Mogato said that they have monitored the suspect for more than a month when they learned that he was the alleged supplier of illegal drugs in some barangays here, based on intelligence information.

With his apprehension, Mogato said that the supply of illegal drugs here will lessen, adding that this accomplishment has a big impact on the problem of illegal drugs here.

Mogato said that they have difficulty at first to arrest Frias because nobody can just enter his area. “Indi ka to basta-basta kasulod sa iya kung indi niya ka kilala,” he added.

Charges for the sale of dangerous drugs will be filed against him on Friday, August 11.

On August 3, the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) confiscated P8.8 million worth of suspected shabu from a member of the said drug group and her two cohorts in Barangay Singcang-Airport here.

Police Colonel Noel Aliño, BCPO director, then offered a cash reward of P100,000 to anyone who could provide information that could lead to the arrest of a member or leader of the Caunda 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.