Lady Drug Runner Cornered In Baguio Sting

October 7, 2020 JUST IN

BAGUIO CITY (October 7, 2020) – A 26 year old lady “drug runner”, supposedly enticed to deliver “drugs by order” for a fee,  was caught early dawn Wednesday here.
Shaine Fane Balbuena, PDEA agents and Baguio policemen said, sold a gram of shabu valued at P6,800.00 to an undercover cop along Sto. Tomas Proper barangay, prompting her arrest and eventual indictment of illegal drugs sale.
Balbuena is a native of Tabuk City, Kalinga.
PDEA-Baguio City Officer Intelligence Agent 1 Rainier Tinong said the lady drug runner is enticed by a drug trader of a good sum of money for every successful delivery to end users.
PDEA-Cordillera director Gil Castro is raising concern on the growing number of women involved in the drug trade, after not only a dozen of women drug runners have already been caught not only in Baguio City but in the Cordillera in the past weeks.
Only more than a week ago, midnight to dawn drug sting operations netted a 48 year old lady drug den operator, five of her customers mostly young ladies, and another young drug runner, who accordingly is a second-generation drug dealer in her family.
Alleged drug den operator, Anna Lyn Bugarin Lee, was caught at her safehouse cum drug den along Purok 24, San Carlos Heights with her customers:  canteen helper from Central Tawang, La Trinidad, Benguet Jeanne Juan Tabil, 19; carwash boy John Michael Tres Reyes Abalos, 22, from San Carlos Heights barangay; tattoo artist Rodel Durwin Balmores, 19 from Upper Burgos barangay; Mark Roan Anthony Corpuz Reyes,19, from Ambiong barangay, here; and an 18 year old girl from Aurora Hill barangay.
Tinong said Lee sold 5 grams of shabu and when frisked also carried another 2.5 grams of shabu for a total of P51,000.00.
Aside from the buy bust money of P16,000, authorities also seized assorted drug paraphernalia, several headless lighters, and used aluminum foils on top of a table inside the drug den.
“Drug Bosses Falling One By One”
Though on the bright side, drug bosses have began falling one by one with the help of their own street hawkers, mostly women, who are volunteering precious intelligence to government.
Two weeks ago, 52-year old Romel Yanis Baucas–   who had been “hiding” as a highland vegetable businessman, was taken when he sold 2.5 grams of shabu to one of his “runners” (retailers), whom he did not expect had already tipped him off.
“They are falling one by one with the invaluable help of informants who know their illegal business so well,” National Bureau of Investigation-Cordillera Intelligence Section Chief, Supervising Agent Lorenzo Lab-as, who led the joint NBI-PDEA-Baguio police sting operation against Baucas beside amall along Naguillan Road in San Luis barangay.
NBI Intelligence Officer Bonifacio Salingbay hinted that they are constantly receiving information from Baguio residents, “and were are validating them in dispatch with high hopes that illegal drugs in the city and the Cordillera region is won over.”
Before Baucas, big-time drug trader-Joseph Ringor, also using Joseph Amisola as his pseudonym and other various aliases like “Vamous” and “Epoy”, was caught after he sold .5 grams of shabu worth P5,000 to a government informant infront of a house in East Quirino Hill.  “Vamous” or “Epoy” had numerous “runners” selling shabu in retail for him in various barangays in the city, authorities said.
Three weeks ago, shabu den operator– Victor Alec Sales Leal, 41, alias “Tisoy”– who like Baucas and Ringor supplies street pushers, also fell at his family’s compound, that he had converted into a drug den and drug retail store along Lower Magsaysay barangay.
Lawyer Noel Morales of the NBI-Cordillera, who led the dragnet operation disclosed that “a lady who has decided to abandon the illegal trade and start anew surrendered and agreed to bust Leal,” prompting a sting operation where she snared Leal to sell her 5 grams of shabu.
Though government agents only seized at least .2 grams of shabu from Leal, which he sold to the lady pusher-turned-government informant, a glass tooter and several butane lighters used at the drug den were also seized, nailing him for drug sale and maintaining a drug den, which are both non-bailable offenses.
Earlier in July, drug kingpin Oliveros was caught at San Carlos Heights here during a court-sanctioned raid where at least 50 grams of shabu was found in his lair. Two weeks after, Filipino-Somalian big-time drug trader Abdul Abdullah surrendered to authorities after feeling the heat of a manhunt after he shot it out with anti-drug agents supposedly out to catch him.
Artemio A. Dumlao