AWOL cop, cohort, nabbed in Makati drug bust
AN AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) police officer and his cohort yielded almost P130,000 worth of shabu in a buy-bust operation that nearly resulted in a shootout Wednesday evening in Makati City.
In his report to Southern Police District (SPD) Director P/BGen. Jimili Macaraeg, Makati Police chief P/Col. Harold Depositar said joint operatives of Station Drug Enforcement Unit (SDEU), Intelligence Section, and Palanan Sub-Station 2 conducted a buy-bust operation against P/Cpl. Ronaldo Robles, 45, previously assigned at Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit National Capital Region Police Office (RPHAU-NCRPO) and resident of Malate, Manila and Erwin Jenel Dela Cruz, 25, of Munoz St., San Andres, Manila at around 6:50 p.m. along Filmore St. Bgy. Palanan.
When Cpl. Robles and his cohort handed a medium size plastic sachet of shabu to a police poseur buyer in exchange for P30,000 marked money, operatives immediately pounced on them but Dela Cruz, in a bid to elude arrest, escaped on board a motorcycle prompting lawmen to give chase.
SDEU operatives were able to intercept the fleeing suspect at the corner of San Andres Road and Taal Streets in Manila but the latter tried to draw his gun after he wrestled with one of the policemen.
Dela Cruz was subsequently subdued due to injury he sustained when the police officer defended himself. He was rushed to Ospital ng Makati for medical attention.
Col. Depositar said lawmen seized from the arrested suspects more or less 19 grams of shabu with standard drug price of P129,200, the marked money consisting of one genuine P1,000, and 29 pieces of boodle money, an improvised handgun loaded with 3 caliber .38 live ammunition, a PNP (Philippine National Police) ID and 2 Yamaha NMAX motorcycles.
“The involvement in illegal drug activity of the arrested ex-cop should not be emulated by other police officers in active duty. We should always remember that the internal cleansing policy in our organization continues, we should maintain a high standard of integrity as a law enforcer,” Macaraeg said in his statement.
