2 ‘HVTs’ die in shabu buy-bust in Muntinlupa
TWO armed ‘high-value targets’ died in a shootout with joint Philippine National Police-Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency after they conspired to sell 10 kilograms of shabu worth P68 million during an anti-narcotics operation Sunday evening in Muntinlupa City.
PNP chief General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar identified the slain suspects as Jordan Sabandal Abrigo and Jayvee de Guzman who were killed in a firefight at the corner of Arellano and Nepomuceno Street in Katarungan Village 1 in Muntinlupa City at around 7:15 p.m.
Gen. Eleazar said that members of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PNP-DEG) headed by Brigadier Gen. Remus B. Medina, the Police Regional Office 6 Regional Intelligence Division, the National Capital Region Police Office Regional Special Operations Group and Regional Drug Enforcement Unit, the Southern Police District and the PDEA-NCR conducted the sting which targeted the two men believed to be working with a group of rogue Chinese and Filipino-Muslims involved in big-time illegal drug trafficking in the country.
NCRPO director, Major Gen. Vicente D. Danao Jr. said that the duo have just conspired to sell two kilos of shabu to an undercover officer when they sensed the sting and immediately pulled out their concealed firearms and began shooting at the poseur prompting back-up operatives to return fire.
Recovered from the possession of the slain suspects were two plastic packs containing Chinese teabags with around two kilos of shabu worth P13.6 million, two chamber-loaded caliber .45 pistols and the P1.5 million worth of boodle money topped by two marked P1,000 bills.
When searched, the suspects’ black Nissan Cefiro with a ‘Lost Plate’ tag yielded several plastic packets containing eight kilos of the drug valued at P54 million.
Citing a report from Medina, Gen. Eleazar said that the two slain suspects were members of the Divinagracia Drug Group led by one Michael Divinagracia and a certain Jhonson, a Chinese national currently serving sentence at the New Bilibid Prison.
The group is known to be drug distributors in different areas of Metro Manila, Western Visayas and other nearby provinces.
Gen. Eleazar said the drug syndicate also operate in different areas of Visayas and Mindanao using cargo trucks traveling via RORO from Batangas Port and were previously received by their Muslim cohorts in the area.
