3 Cagayan Valley ‘HVTs’ arrested
THREE “high-value drug targets” in Cagayan Valley are now in jail after being arrested in separate anti-narcotics operations in the region, Police Regional Office (PRO) 2 director, Brigadier General Steve B. Ludan said on Saturday.
The official identified the suspects as John Patrick Lahom, 21; Ruzzel Balunsat, 34; and Antonio Bacud, 53.
In a report to Philippine National Police chief, Lieutenant General Dionardo B. Carlos, the Cagayan Valley police director said Lahom, a resident of Bgy. Buag in Bambang, Nueva Viscaya, yielded an estimated P1,000 worth of shabu, the buy-bust money and some drug paraphernalia when he was arrested in a sting in an apartment in Purok 4, Bgy. Sta. Rosa in Bayombong municipality.
On the other hand, Balunsta, a resident of Molave Street in Bgy. Rosario, Santiago City, was arrested last Thursday in a buy-bust operation which led in the confiscation of a heat-sealed plastic sachet containing the so-called “poor man’s cocaine” which he sold to an undercover officer for P3,000.
Ludan said Bacud, a carpenter from Bgy. San Antonio in Aparri, Cagayan, was arrested past 3 p.m. Thursday in Bgy. Macanaya. The suspect yielded two plastic packets containing some 700 grams of dried marijuana leaves valued at P60,000, the boodle money topped by a marked P1,000 bill and a mobile phone he used in making the illegal drug transaction with the poseur.
The PRO2 director said that all three suspects are now facing non-bailable charges for sale and possession of prohibited drugs under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
