Two teens fall in drug bust

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Two teenagers were arrested after they allegedly facilitated the sale of illegal drugs evening of July 24 at Arevalo, Iloilo City.

Police only identified the suspects as Jane (real name withheld), 17, of Zone 2, Barangay Calaparan, Arevalo and John, 15, of Barangay Rizal Estanzuela, City Proper district.

The two are high school students in Arevalo district.

Arresting operatives from the Regional Police Drug Enforcement Unit (RPDEU) 6 said Jane’s parents and John’s guardian already presented a birth certificate showing that they are indeed minors.

They claimed to be friends, but police believed they are romantically involved with each other.

Recovered from their possession were suspected shabu weighing 5 grams valued at P40,000, the P12,000 buy-bust money, a mobile phone, and a facemask.

RPDEU-6 members arrested the young couple after Jane handed a sachet of suspected shabu wrapped in a disposable face mask.

Captain Glenn Soliman, RPDEU-6 team leader, said Jane and John arrived on board a tricycle at their meeting place at Barangay Sta. Cruz, Arevalo at around 7:45 p.m. on Monday.

They came from a resort in Arevalo and were asked by a certain Dindo, Jane’s uncle, to deliver the shabu to a buyer.

Soliman said Dindo was the target of the operation.

“But he made his young niece as his runner,” he said.

Soliman said, though, that Jane is not at all innocent of what she’s doing.

“She seemed to know that she was carrying illegal drugs. It also appeared that she did it several times already,” he said.

Jane claimed that her uncle had a previous drug arrest in Dumangas, Iloilo but did not elaborate on how he was freed from detention.

The two minors were turned over to the custody of the City Social Welfare and Development Office.

Soliman said they are waiting for the result of the determination of discernment from the social worker assigned to the teenagers’ case.

Once it is determined that they acted with discernment, a case for violation of Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) would be filed against them.