CEBU CITY – Police arrested three high-value individuals and seized close to P50 million worth of suspected shabu in a buy-bust operation early morning Sunday here.
Arrested were Rolando Ondoy Romeo, 32; his 24-year-old brother Edward and Calvin Hermoso Valdez, 42, all residents of Barangay Guadalupe where the buy-bust operation took place at 7:45 a.m.
Operatives of the City Intelligence Unit of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) seized from the suspects seven kilos of suspected shabu with an estimated value of P47 million.
Valdez was the owner of the Toyota Vios that the suspects used to transport the illegal drugs, said police.
Police Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, chief of the Police Regional Office Central Visayas, and city mayor Edgardo Labella rushed to the area to check on the huge haul of illegal drugs.
Ferro said the illegal drugs were kept in tea packs, an indication that the illegal drugs may have originated from the “golden triad”, an international drug syndicate operating in Southeast Asian countries.
"Based on the packaging, this may have come from Myanmar," said Ferro, who previously headed the national Drug Enforcement Group.
Ferro said that investigation showed that the suspects got the illegal drugs from Rustico Ygot, who was arrested last May 18, 2010, and currently serving his sentence at the Zamboanga Penal Colony.
The contraband was shipped from San Carlos City, Negros Oriental to Toledo City, southern Cebu.
"From San Carlos City, the items were said to have been picked up by Rolando at the Toledo City port," said Ligan.
Ligan said the police monitored the three suspects for two months before they were arrested.
Labella commended the CCPO for its unrelenting campaign against illegal drugs despite the challenges posed by coronavirus disease (COVID-19).