Deeper probe on Abra shabu mafia ordered

BANGUED, Abra -- Gov. Eustaquio Bersamin has ordered a deeper probe into the alleged involvement of three provincial jail guards, son of a former town mayor and officials in the shabu trade.

“We should hit hard against drug syndicate and there will be no sacred cows in our campaign against illegal drugs,” said Bersamin in a directive to Senior Supt. Alex Pumecha, provincial police director.

The names of the three jail guards cropped up in the investigation into the killing last July 11 of Chief Insp. Dante Gacadan, provincial head of the Police Anti-Drug Special Operations Task Force, during a sting operation.

Gacadan and his men were running after a certain Aga Ato, 21, a suspected courier of a Quezan City-based drug syndicate, when he was fatally shot.

A Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency agent, PO3 Renato Guerrero, was wounded. Ato was killed in the shootout.

A cellular phone in Ato’s possession, according to reports, contained the names of at least four drug pushers detained in the provincial jail, including a son of a town mayor.

“The mayor’s son would order shabu from Ato who, in turn, delivered it to Abra. Ato had just delivered a shipment of shabu when he was encountered by Gacadan’s men,” said a ranking police official.

Upon receiving the report, Bersamin, along with Pumecha, inspected the provincial and confiscated the cell phones of the four jailed drug peddlers.

Shabu and drug sniffing paraphernalia were also seized.

“The four drug pushers were sharing the proceeds if their illegal trade with the three jail guards so their activities would go unhampered,” a police official said.

Bersamin didn’t identify the three jail guards but ordered them restricted while investigation was ongoing.

Following this, Bersamin approved deployment of a police contingent to the provincial jail to prevent drug syndicates from using it to distribute shabu in the province.

Members of the Regional Mobile Group would be assigned to the provincial jail upon recommendation of Chief Supt. Eugene Martin, Cordillera police director.

Martin told the media drug syndicates were suspected as using the provincial jail as distribution center of shabu in Abra following the results of two unannounced inspections conducted by Pumecha.

The second inspection last Aug. 23 yielded five sachets of suspect shabu, five pieces of aluminum foil, a tooter and two cellular phones.

Bersamin accompanied Pumecha in inspecting the provincial jail wherein they confiscated sachets of shabu, drug-sniffing paraphernalia and mobile phones in the cell of a son of a former municipal mayor, who is facing drug charges.

Bersamin replaced the jail warden who failed to curb activities of inmates involved in drug trafficking.

Martin said RMG members will be posted in entry and exit points of the provincial jail to prevent illegal drugs or other contraband from being smuggled in.

“He said the police contingent will frisk anybody entering and leaving the provincial jail and that no cell phones will be allowed inside the facility.

Martin said all visitors will be noted in a logbook.

He added the RMG would also stop the old practice of spiriting out inmates to commit crimes in Abra and nearby provinces.

Martin meanwhile said Task Force Abra was still needed in the province which remains unstable even after the elections which saw a number of violent incidents.

During the first half of the year, Abra accounted for nearly half of the crime volume in the whole Cordillera region.

The task force, which Martin headed during the May 14 polls, is an internal defense system, particularly in the provincial capital of Bangued where most crimes are committed.

The task force, now headed by Senior Supt. Villamor Bumanglag is now enforcing a total gun ban in the province.