BACOLOD CITY – A couple was arrested and 86 grams of suspected shabu worth P584,800 were seized in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Granada here on Saturday, January 6.
A COUPLE was arrested and suspected shabu worth P585,000 was seized in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Granada, Bacolod City on Saturday, January 6. (Photo courtesy of Bacolod City Police Office)
Police identified the suspects as Zaldy Tarug and his live-in partner Jessa Quillan, considered a high-value individual and a street-level individual, respectively.
Suspects yielded 21 sachets of suspected shabu, the P500 marked money, P120, lighter, and an improvised tooter.
Police Major Joery Puerto, head of Police Station 5, said that Tarug was arrested by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in 2015 and Quillan was nabbed for a drug offense in 2021.
Tarug and Quillan were released in 2021 and 2022, respectively, through plea bargaining.
Puerto said the couple had been monitored since November last year.
He said that Tarug will be charged for sale and illegal possession of dangerous drugs while Quillan will face a case of illegal possession of drug paraphernalia.
This is the first big drug haul of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) this year. It came a day after the Police Drug Enforcement Group-Special Operations Unit (PDEG-SOU)-Western Visayas and Police Station 8 confiscated suspected shabu valued at P516,000 in Barangay Singcang-Airport here on Friday, January 5.
However, the subject of the operation, Romeo Val Pagaduan, managed to escape, while his live-in partner Lizel Flores, 40, also of Barangay Singcand-Airport, was arrested.