P3.2- M worth of shabu seized in Oton buy bust

By Jennifer P. Rendon

 

The Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) posted another big-time drug haul after arresting a suspected illegal drugs distributor in a buy-bust operation in Oton, Iloilo evening of January 21, 2021.

Elmer Niquia, 48, of Barangay Alalasan, La Paz, Iloilo City, was collared after selling two sachets of suspected shabu for PHP20,000 to an undercover police agent.

Members of the IPPO Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit and Oton Police Station arrested Niquia at Botda Village, Phase 2, Barangay Buray, Oton.

When his bag was searched, a pouch containing two big and two small sachets of suspected shabu was found.

Colonel Gilbert Gorero, Iloilo Police Chief, said the seized shabu has a street value of PHP3.2-million.

Unlike other arrested drug suspects, Niquia admitted that he was into illegal drugs use and trade.

But he said he does not know his source.

He allegedly got calls from several numbers instructing him where to pick up the items.

The latest drop happened this week.

“I was told to get it from a trash bin,” he told Super Radyo-Iloilo.

 

He pointed to an area near a hotel in downtown Iloilo City where he allegedly got the plastics of shabu.

Also taken from the suspect was a list of number codes where he would deliver the supply.

But he again claimed he didn’t know them.

Meanwhile, Captain Jayson Robert Pancha, Oton Police Chief, said they monitored Niquia to be cooling off in Oton as his trail was already hot in Iloilo City.

Most of the suspect’s transactions also happened in Iloilo City.

On January 5, a 30-year-old woman was arrested with around PHP8-million worth of suspected shabu in a drug sting at Barangay San Antonio, Oton.

Mary Joy Villarina, 39, a resident of Deca Homes in Barangay Pandac, Pavia, Iloilo, was arrested with more than 400 grams of shabu.