POLICE Regional Office (PRO) 7 director Brigadier General Anthony A. Aberin on Monday announced the arrest of five top drug targets in Central Visayas, one of them a 17-year-old male following separate buy-bust operations in the region last week.

Two of the suspects were arrested in an anti-narcotics operation in Mandaue City on Saturday which led to the seizure of a kilo of shabu worth P6.8 million, the official reported to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Benjamin C. Acorda Jr.

Aberin said the suspects were considered “high-value individuals” in Region 7 who have long been under the radar of the local police.

The PRO7 director said that the two were arrested around 10:30 p.m. Saturday by members of the Mandaue City Police Office’s Drug Enforcement Unit under Col. Jeffrey T. Caballes during a sting along CIP Bridge in Zuellig Street in Barangay Subangdaku.

The undercover officers, in coordination with the local Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), placed the duo under arrest after they conspired to sell the prohibited drugs to a poseur.

Recovered were 12 plastic packets of shabu valued at P6.8 million, a mobile phone they used in making contact with the undercover agent, and the buy-bust money.

A gray Nissan sedan used by the two suspects to transport the drugs was impounded by the Mandaue City police. Aberin said that the confiscated pieces of drug evidence were placed under the safekeeping of the Regional Forensic Unit (RFU) 7.

The two other suspects were arrested in a sting in Englis V. Rama St. in Bgy. Guadalupe in Cebu City around 1:55 a.m. last Sunday, the official said.

Aberin said that one of the suspects is a 17-year-old male resident of Bgy. Ermita, Cebu City, while the 2nd suspect was a resident of Unit 1 Market in the same barangay.

Members of the Cebu City Police Station 9, under Col. Ireneo Dalogdog, confiscated nine plastic packets containing some 100 grams of shabu worth P680,000 and the marked money.

The 5th drug target, a resident of Bgy. Piapi in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental yielded 50 grams of the so-called “poor man’s cocaine” and buy-bust money during an entrapment operation in Purok 4 in Bgy. Balugo in Valencia municipality past 8 p.m. Sunday.

Members of the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit and the Valencia Municipal Police Station under Col. Alex Recinto, with the support of the PRO7 RDEU conducted the anti-narcotics operation.

All suspects are now facing non-bailable charges for the sale and possession of prohibited drugs under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, said Aberin.