‘Most wanted’ drug lord in Cordillera gets 20 years

BAGUIO CITY – The top most wanted drug personality in the Cordillera, who was also included in the police’s order of battle against organized crime groups at the time of his last arrest on Aug. 25, 2009, was recently convicted to suffer 12 years and one day to 20 years jail and fined P400,000 in a Sept. 5 court ruling by Judge Antonio C. Reyes of the regional trial court.

Teodulo A. Villareal alias “Teddy” was last-apprehended by virtue of a warrant of arrest and bench warrant served against him and his live-in partner respectively, by a team from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency – Cordillera Administrative Region, Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit and Highway Patrol Group.

The 47-year old Villareal, a civil engineering undergraduate, native of Baguio City was reportedly associated with a notorious local drug syndicate and a dreaded organized crime group operating on a national scale.

He was apprehended by operatives of the Baguio City Police Office Drug Enforcement Unit on Jan. 7, 2003 at South Drive here for selling dangerous drugs, but was acquitted on May 25, 2005.

He was nabbed again on August 17, 2006 at Siapno Road, Pacdal here with two cohorts, when they sold shabu to a member of the BCPO operating team posing as buyer. Yet again, the case was dismissed on March 14, 2007.

Said team was then led by now PDEA – CAR regional director, Gil Cesario P. Castro.

Villareal and his live-in partner was nabbed at the Baguio General Hospital rotunda in Baguio City at around 12 noon, where Villareal was nabbed anew with a sachet of .44 gram of shabu.

Earlier, on August 2, 2008, a search warrant was jointly implemented by CIDU – CAR and PDEA – CAR, also through the leadership of Castro, at No. 46 Siapno Rd., Pacdal here , the residence of Villareal, which he operated as drug den or shabu tiangge, with his live-in partner.

This was actually the first shabu tiangge case in the region, a PDEA report said.

Found in the house during the anti-drug operation were shabu and marijuana, chemical precursors of shabu, laboratory tools for mixing essential chemicals to produce shabu, numerous assorted paraphernalia for pot sessions, equipment for and records of drug transactions, empty shells and a live bullet, and deadly weapons.

Villareal got away then during the raid, hence his warrant of arrest. But his co-operator was caught with nine others, including five minors and two other females.

The report said most of them were relatives of the couple, where two were kids of Villareal and one that of his live-in partner.

One of them was reportedly the niece of a known defense attorney of drug law violators.