3 Tacurong drug den operators charged

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 12 had filed corresponding cases against three operators of a drug den busted in Tacurong City on Friday last week, a non-bailable offense.

"They are now awaiting litigation. Operating a drug den is a non-bailable offense so they will remain locked in jail for the whole duration of their prosecution for the case they now face," Aileen Lovitos, director of PDEA-12, said.

Drug den owner Ricky Plarisan Borres and his accomplices, Bernadette Caños Besavilla and Kristelle Mae Bermejo Caalim are now all in the custody of PDEA-12.

The suspects did not resist when PDEA-12 agents, backed by personnel of units under the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office, arrived at their drug den in a slum area in Tacurong City and showed them a search warrant from a local court during an operation on Friday last week.

All three of them were immediately detained when the raiding team found P34,000 worth of shabu and drug-sniffing paraphernalia scattered in their den reportedly frequented by people from villages around.

Barangay officials and policemen involved in the operation had told reporters one of the targets of PDEA-12’s operation, the large-scale shabu supplier Renny Plarisan Borres, managed to escape taking with him a small waist pouch that they are sure contained his illegal merchandise.

He was the main supplier of shabu to their drug den, according to barangay officials who supported the PDEA-12 operation that resulted in the arrest of his three companions.

Lovitos said they are to prosecute the runaway Borres in absentia, along with his three now detained cohorts, among them his brother, Ricky.

Besides shabu, PDEA-12 agents and policemen had also confiscated the mobile phones of the suspects that have numbers of their contacts. (John Felix Unson)