Twenty persons, one of them a 14-year old boy, were arrested when authorities raided a “shabu tiangge” in Barangay Ilang, Tibungco in Davao City Thursday afternoon, police said.
The raiders recovered at least 31 sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or shabu, from in eight houses in the village. They also seized a .45-caliber pistol, a .38-caliber revolver, two .22-caliber revolvers and a fragmentation grenade.
The police said two of those arrested — Jimmy Jimlani Lapasaran, alias Boogie, and Feliz Maujin, alias Feliz — were “notorious” drug peddlers in the city.
Senior Supt. Ronald dela Rosa said almost all of the houses covered by search warrants in the village yielded drugs and “drug personalities.”
Lapasaran admitted to peddling shabu but claimed he was merely a “runner. I used to sell fish. But I am just one of the runners in the village,” he said.
Another of those arrested, Jeran Assi, was also the suspect in the killing of a couple in April, allegedly over a drug deal gone sour. Assi admitted to the killing but said he did it in self-defense.
He also said he began selling drugs for lack of a livelihood.
Senior Superintendent Ignatius Ferro of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Region XI described drug sales in the village as “massive.”
Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte congratulated the police even as he warned other criminals that “the law will catch up with you.”
Just a few hours after the raid, authorities killed another drug suspect who shot it out with them, still in Tibunco.
Junny Damo, 24, allegedly tried to shoot a police officer posing as a drug buyer.
“He could have sensed that the man buying shabu from him was a police officer. He tried to shoot our police officer but it was him who got killed,” said Senior Insp. Reynaldo Capute of the Bunawan police.