A tricycle driver apparently moonlighting as a drug pusher was arrested in a buy-bust operation last week by the Catanduanes police, which also confiscated 15 sachets of suspected shabu.
The operation conducted on Jan. 22, 2024 at about 7:30 AM along the provincial road in barangay Juan M. Alberto (Poniton) was spearheaded by elements of the Virac police station led by PCMS Louie Garcia, together with personnel of the Catanduanes Police Intelligence Unit (CATPIU) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
According to the report, Ronie Solsona Brequillo, 49, married and a resident of barangay Lanao, was apprehended after he sold to an undercover police officer a small, heat-sealed, transparent plastic sachet containing white crystalline substance believed to be methamphetamine hydrochloride.
A search of his body and the Kawasaki Bajaj tricycle he was driving turned up 14 more sachets containing suspected shabu, as well as the P500 bill used as buy-bust money, a P20 bill and an unsealed sachet.
The inventory of the evidence was done at the site of the operation and in the presence of the suspect and mandatory witnesses – barangay kagawad Janssen Molina of Salvacion and Department of Justice (DOJ) representative Rudy Templonuevo.
The suspected drug items were brought to the Provincial Forensic Unit at Camp Francisco Camacho for laboratory examination while cases for violation of Section 5 and 11 of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, were filed through inquest proceedings before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor.