Anti-illegal drugs operatives in Negros Oriental scored their biggest haul this year with the arrest of a suspected high-level drug pusher in a buy-bust operation that yielded suspected “shabu” worth P650,000 at around 3:15 p.m. Monday in Dumaguete City.
After the arrest of suspected drug pusher identified as Ricky Alum Selencio, 39, married and a resident of Purok Orchid in Sitio Canday-ong, Barangay Calindagan, the joint team led by the Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group also arrested a suspected hit man allegedly involved in some shooting incidents in the City, the police said.
The suspected triggerman, whom the police identified as Federico Aseñas, married, of legal age and who is reportedly also from Canday-ong, was picked up later yesterday afternoon.
While no shabu was confiscated from him, initial police reports said he was arrested after a buy-bust transaction that did not prosper.
In a subsequent search, however, operatives found a .38 caliber revolver with no ammunition and a fragmentation grenade in his possession.
Aseñas reportedly has a previous conviction and is believed to be a “hired killer” who has served in Muntinlupa, Sr. Supt Mariano Natuel Jr., OIC provincial police director of the Philippine National Police in Negros Oriental, said.
PAIDSOTG operatives led by Insp. Ryan Jay Orapa, with members of the Dumaguete police, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Special Weapons & Tactics group arrested Selencio who allegedly sold about 113 grams of suspected shabu granules to an undercover agent posing as a buyer.
Confiscated from him were two large plastic sachets known as “sako” in street slang, and a smaller plastic sachet or “bolto” of alleged shabu.
The items recovered included marked P500 bills and bogus money, cash receipts for remittances purportedly from the illegal drugs sales, a weighing scale, two black bags, and empty plastic sachets.
Both suspects are alleged to be Level 2 drug pushers who sell large quantities of shabu, Natuel said.
Selencio admitted in an interview that he had returned to the illegal drugs trade about a few months ago after driving a pedicab for a few years.
He said the hospitalization of his ailing mother and an eight-month old child pushed him to engage once more in the illegal drugs trade.
Asked if he knew the suppliers or bigwigs peddling shabu in Dumaguete, he said he did not and that transactions between him and his contacts are usually done via text messaging and meet-ups at pre-arranged drop-off points.
Aseñas denied ownership of the gun and the grenade purportedly recovered from him.
He declined to be interviewed at first, but later admitted he was jailed for sometime in Bais City, Negros Oriental, for an offense he did not disclose.
Aseñas expressed surprise that he was being accused of having a gun and a grenade in his possession.
He said law enforcers he had met previously, having “worked with them” went to his house in Tubtubon, Sibulan, and asked him to come with them.
It was only at the Dumaguete police station that he was immediately handcuffed and placed under arrest for reasons unknown to him, he said.
Meanwhile, Natuel described the arrest of the two as a result of strengthened anti-illegal drugs operations.
As directed by PNP Region 7 Director, Chief Supt. Tom Bañas, the organization structure has been widened with Natuel now as commander of the group formerly headed by Orapa.
Bañas said the campaign against the illegal drugs trade tops the list of his administration’s priority programs.
The firearm confiscated from Aseñas will be subjected to ballistics examination by the PNP Crime Laboratory to determine a match with evidence gathered from previous shooting incidents related to the drug problem, Natuel said. (PNA/JFP)
