Visayas drug ring crumbling

Like a tower of bricks crumbling down, players in Jaguar’s drug empire had fallen one by one in the past two weeks since the godfather’s slay in a shootout in Las Piñas, Rizal.

Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz, the godfather of a growing shabu empire, was killed in a police operation that resulted to a shootout on June 17 in Las Piñas, Rizal.

Diaz’s drug ring dominated the Central Visayas market and expanded to areas surrounding Metro Manila.

His close associate, Alvaro “Barok” Alvaro, surrendered to the Bohol team of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on June 21 after fearing for his life and that of his family.

Part of the negotiation for Alvaro to surrender to NBI-Bohol was for him to cooperate in the police operations aimed at drug rings.

Indeed, it had been reported that Alvaro had already named some co-horts and protectors.

The latest to fall was one Lito Belandres, another associate of Diaz, tagged as a top drug personality in Negros Oriental.

The police team of Negros Oriental under acting provincial director, Senior Supt. Harris Fama, tracked him down in his mansion overlooking the sea in barangay Canday-ong, a known drug haven in Dumaguete City around 8 a.m. last Friday.

In the Dumaguete-based police surveillance, Belandras had been monitored holding base in Oslob, a southern town of Cebu.

Belandras’ market included Oslob and its neighboring town of Santander, Dumaguete City and several towns of Negros Oriental.

The intelligence team of Negros Oriental Police monitored Belandras crossing to Negros Oriental through the 45-minute pumpboat ride from Santander in Cebu to Sibulan in Negros Oriental.

According to the intelligence report, Belandras would dispose around 200 grams to a kilo of shabu in a week, earning for him the tag of a Level 2 drug pusher.

After a team from the Police Regional Office (PRO)-7 in Cebu killed Diaz, his source of shabu, Belandras was forced to lie low at his mansion in Dumaguete City.

Unknown to Belandras, the Dumaguete-based police team from the provincial command tracked him down and obtained a search warrant from the court.

Based on the search warrant, the Negros Oriental police raided Belandras’ mansion in the morning of July 1.

Belandres allegedly opened fire, resulting to the shootout.

The quick response team brought him to a hospital but he was declared dead on arrival.

The raiding team recovered packs of shabu and firearms Belandras’ mansion.

MUNTINLUPA SOURCE

The Philippine National Police is now hot on a big drug syndicate based in the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa as intelligence report showed Diaz’s drug empire got supply of shabu from a big drug syndicate based in the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa.

In fact, the No. 1 drug trafficker in Tagbilaran City, Jade “Boyet” Delusa, who had been arrested in a buy-bust operation on Tuesday last week allegedly got his supply of shabu from a source in Muntinlupa.

Police Senior Inspector Jojit Mananquil, chief of the Provincial Intelligence Branch of the Bohol Police Provincial Office (BPPO), disclosed that Delusa got some of his supply of shabu from a source in National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.

Intelligence report, however, had it that Delusa directly got his supply of shabu from Muntinlupa, and no information yet linked him to Diaz’s drug empire.

Delusa, the 32,  yielded an estimated 25 grams of shabu with estimated value of P295,000 during the buy-bust operation at around 9:30 p.m. on June 28 in barangay Manga where he is a resident.

According to Mananquil, they had been following Jade Delusa for more than a year already, but the arrested drug personality had been too elusive, giving the police a hard time finding the opportunity to trap him.

The composite team of Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group and Mananquil’s team first trapped Jade Delusa in a buy-bust operation.

In the search that ensued, the police team confiscated four big plastic sachets and 13 small plastic sachets of shabu, the marked money amounting P300, and drug paraphernalia from Jade Delusa.

Mananquil’s team conducted the operation under the direct supervision of Police Provincial Director Dennis Agustin.