Midnight To Dawn Stings Net Baguio Lady Drug Den Operator, 6 Others

September 30, 2020 JUST IN

BAGUIO CITY(September 29, 2020) – Midnight to dawn drug sting operations by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Baguio policemen netted a 48 year old lady drug den operator, six of her customers mostly young ladies, and another young drug runner, who accordingly is a second-generation drug dealer in her family.

PDEA Baguio City Officer, Intelligence Agent1 Renier Tinong said 19 year old Alexandra Domingo, one among the “runners” (retailers) of now jailed Cordilllera region drug kingpin Federico Oliveros, was snared at East Qurino Hill at 11PM Sunday while selling a heat-sealed sachet of shaby weighing .3 grams (P2,040.00) to a government agent. Five more heat sealed sachets of shabu (.7 grams) were seized from her.

Authorities said most of Domingo’s family members were also earlier caught for drug dealing in the city.

After midnight, a supposed sting operation against 48-year old Anna Lyn Bugarin Lee, “turned out big” when another team of PDEA-Baguio, PDEA-Cordillera Regional Special Enforcement Team and Baguio policemen, caught her with 5 of her customers sniffing shabu at her safehouse cum drug den along Purok 24, San Carlos Heights barangay.

Her customers caught inside the drug den were: 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 contained in a sachet 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.

Lee will face charges of maintaining a drug den and selling shabu, while Domingo will also face charges for selling shabu, which are non-baliable offenses, while a bailable offense of drug use will be lodged against the five other customers of Lee.

“Drug Bosses Falling One By One”

Monday’s arrests came as drug bosses in the city are falling one by one with the help of their own street hawkers, whom authorities claim, are volunteering intelligence to government.

Wednesday afternoon last week, 52-year old Romel Yanis Baucas– who had been “hiding” as a highland vegetable businessman, was taken after 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,” bared National Bureau of Investigation-Cordillera Administrative Region (NBI-CAR) Intelligence Section Chief, Supervising Agent Lorenzo Lab-as, who led the joint NBI-PDEA-Baguio police sting operation Wednesday afternoon last week against Baucas beside the Cooyesan Mall along Naguillan Road in San Luis barangay here.

Baucas, who earlier sold less than a gram of shabu during a “test-buy” surveillance operation caught on video did not resist arrest when agents supervised on the ground by lawyer Paul Moises, NBI-CAR Executive Officer, pounced on him, as he handed the shabu to the informant after taking the P10,000.00 payment inside his Toyota Grandia van.

The 52 year old drug boss, PDEA-Baguio City Officer Tinong said, is a newly discovered drug trader distributing shabu in Baguio City and nearby La Trinidad, Benguet.

NBI Intelligence Officer Bonifacio Salingbay said 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, another big-time drug trader-Joseph Ringor was caught Tuesday afternoon. Also using Joseph Amisola as his pseudonym and other various aliases like “Vamous” and “Epoy”, Ringor sold .5 grams of shabu worth P5,000 to a government informant infront of a house in East Quirino Hill barangay. “Vamous” or “Epoy”, living at New Lucban barangay, had numerous “runners” selling shabu in retail for him in various barangays in the city, authorities said.

Thursday the other week, shabu den operator– Victor Alec Sales Leal, 41, alias “Tisoy”– who like Baucas and Ringor supplies street pushers, also fell in a heart-pounding sting operation at the heart of Baguio’s central business district. He was cornered by NBI and PDEA agents at his family’s compound, that he had converted into a drug den and drug retail store along Lower Magsaysay barangay here.

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 24-hour manhunt after he shot it out with anti-drug agents supposedly out to catch him.

Artemio A. Dumlao