BACOLOD CITY – A policeman was wounded in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Tan-awan, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental on Tuesday, July 2.
Police Capt. Joelan Vinson, deputy chief of the Kabankalan City Police Station, said suspected drug pushers 42-year-old Alvie Taco and his 22-year-old shot Police Staff Sgt. Iric Montoyo who responded as one of the backup operatives in the operation.
POLICE nabbed two persons in a buy-bust operation where a policeman was wounded in Barangay Tan-awan, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental on Tuesday, July 2. (Photo courtesy of Kabankalan City Police Station)
Vinson said that Montoyo sustained a bullet wound in the right arm and is recuperating in a private hospital here.
The suspects were arrested and seized from them were 20 grams of suspected shabu worth P136,000, an improvised tooter, and the P500 marked money.
Recovered from Taco were a .45 caliber Glock pistol with a magazine loaded with bullets and a fired cartridge case. His companion yielded a .22 caliber revolver with five bullets.
Taco was listed as No. 6 drug personality in the police priority target list on the provincial level and No. 1 on the city level.
The suspect, an alleged remnant of a criminal gang or a drug group, was monitored for months prior to his arrest. He was considered a high-value individual and his companion was a street-level individual.
Taco was convicted and had served a sentence for a drug offense before he was arrested.
Vinson said the suspects face drug, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, and frustrated homicide cases.