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Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella (right) interrogates the three drug suspects, who were caught with P47.6 million of alleged shabu during the buy-raid operation on Sunday, September 20, 2021 in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City. | Photo of Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The three men, who were captured with nearly P50 million suspected shabu during a buy-raid operation in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City on September 20, 2020, were allegedly new recruits for the Rustico Ygot drug trafficking group.
Police Colonel Josefino Ligan, head of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said this during a press conference on Monday, September 21, 2020.
Ligan said that in their follow-up investigation into the suspects, whom they described as High Value Individuals (HVI) on their drug watch list, they discovered that the three suspects Rolando Ondoy Romeo, 32; Edward Ondoy Romeo, 24 years old; and Calvin Hermoso Valdez, 42, were illegal drug couriers allegedly owned by the Ygot drug group.
Consolation, drug arrests in Mandaue
Read: Bilibid Prisoner Linked To P190.4M-shabu Arrests Runs Cebu Drug Ring Via Internet
In previous reports, Ygot was described as a drug lord, serving time at New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.
He was linked to the seizure of P190.4 million of suspected shabu from Jocelyn Encila during a buy and sell operation in the northern Cebu city of Consolacion.
The police labeled Ygot as the source of Encila’s illegal drugs.
Read: 3 men killed in Mandaue City meeting are members of Ygot drug syndicate
In July 2019, the men who died in a shootout with police officers in Mandaue City, where P78.2 million in shabu was also seized.
Mandaue police later described Ygot’s group as a drug trafficking syndicate based in the city of Consolación and described that the group’s drug shipments covered Visayas, Mindanao and even Luzon.
New recruits
Read: Read: Cebu City Police Arrest 3 HVI, Confiscate P47.6M of Shabu
“Based on the information, last year they did not have it, only now are they recruited through the intermediary. Whoever (intermediary) is, that’s why we will fight … So Ygot and I are new recruits, ”Ligan said about the three men arrested at the Tipolo Bridge in Barangay Guadalupe last Sunday, September 20, 2020.
(According to our information, these men were not involved last year. They are newly recruited men through an intermediary. Who is this intermediary, that’s what we are investigating … So these are new Ygot recruits)
Ligan said they learned that the illegal drugs were from Ygot’s group after conducting a month-long surveillance of the activities of the three arrested men.
He said that although Ygot was still being held in the Bilibid National Prison, he still had people outside, which seemed to have increased his group.
“That’s why your soldiers on the ground, they will move your (items) wherever they ship or distribute them across provinces, in Negros, Cebu, Cebu City and Bohol,” Ligan said.
These are your soldiers on the ground, these are the people who would move the (items) to where to send or distribute them through the provinces of Negros, Cebu, Cebu City and Bohol.
Dumaguete Supplier
Read: Police kill ‘one of the largest drug suppliers in Dumaguete’; P13M shabu seized
Ligan also tagged the man killed in a shootout with police in Negros Oriental, who had 2 kilos of suspected shabu in his backpack, as another member of Ygot’s group.
Ligan said the HVI arrested in Cebu City are the same group as the San Carlos city man, Negros Occidental, who was killed during a buy-and-sell operation in the city of Sibulan in Negros Oriental.
The man was carrying a backpack that was later found to contain 2kg of suspected shabu or nearly P50 million worth of illegal drugs.
The Negros police believed that the man they killed was one of the largest suppliers in the city of Dumaguete, Negros Oriental.
Shabu inside the LED boxes
Read: P81.6M shabu found in three LED light boxes inside Mandaue City warehouse
Apart from that, Ligan also labeled Ygot’s group as responsible for the confiscated 12 kilos of suspected shabu placed inside LED boxes, which were shipped via a courier company with a warehouse in Mandaue City in July 2020.
Ligan said that with the information they had gathered, they would conduct more coordinated operations and meet with interested government agencies to help address this issue.
“You will always find, our only harvest is how to monitor and gather information on where some drug lords are,” Ligan said.
(They always will. What we can do with this is how to monitor and collect information and find out where your drug dealer was.) / Dbs
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