HVT drug suspect killed in Leyte shootout
A 38-YEAR-OLD armed “high-value target” (HVT) in Eastern Visayas was killed in a gun battle that marred an anti-narcotics operation in Carigara, Leyte, last Tuesday afternoon, Police Regional Office 8 (PRO 8) Director Brigadier General Bernard M. Banac said yesterday.
The drug suspect exchanged fire with undercover officers out to arrest him during an entrapment operation in Bgy. Sagkahan in Carigara municipality and died when the operatives retaliated, said the PRO 8 director.
In a report to Philippine National Police Officer-in-Charge (PNP-OIC) Lt. Gen. Vicente D. Danao Jr., the Eastern Visayas Police director, said that drug enforcement officers from the Leyte Police Provincial Office (PPO) and the Carigara Municipal Police Station (MPS) conducted the drug sting in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
During the sting, an undercover agent managed to buy a packet of shabu for P25,000 from the suspect. However, the suspect apparently “sensed” the ongoing entrapment operation while about to receive the marked money from the poseur buyer prompting him to draw a concealed handgun and fire a shot at the lawman but missed.
Other officers retaliated, hitting the suspect, who was immediately rushed to the Carigara District Hospital, where an attending physician pronounced him dead upon arrival around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Recovered were one chamber-loaded caliber .45 pistol with a magazine containing two live ammunition, the buy-bust money, five plastic sachets of shabu, and a motorcycle without a plate number.
The evidence seized from the suspect was placed under the custody of the PRO 8 Regional Forensic Group, said Brig. Gen. Banac.
Lt. Gen. Danao commended the PRO 8 for their latest accomplishment in the war on drugs.
“Our campaign against illegal drugs has been successful so far as manifested in our series of anti-illegal drugs operations, and we will continue to intensify our efforts in pursuit of our mission for a safer and drug-free community,” the PNP-OIC said.
