A construction worker was arrested last week in an anti-drug operation after handing over two sachets of suspected shabu to an undercover police officer along Imelda Boulevard in Rawis, Virac.
The report of Virac police chief P/Major Emsol E. Icawat identified the suspected drug pusher as one Lester Vallespin Toledo, 30, a resident of barangay Palnab del Norte.
Joint elements of the Virac MPS, Catanduanes Provincial Intelligence Unit (PIU) and the Regional Police Drug Enforcement Unit (RPDEU) mounted the buy-bust operation against Toledo, making the arrest at 12:25 AM of April 3, 2024.
Confiscated from him were two (2) heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets containing white crystalline substance believed to be methamphetamine hydrochloride, as well as a small, folded piece of paper, a genuine P500 bill, a fake P500 bill, and the black Rusi DL 150 motorcycle he was using at the time.
The inventory of the seized evidence was made at the place of the incident and in the presence of Salvacion barangay kagawad Jansen Molina and a representative of the Department of Justice, with the drug evidence taken to the Provincial Forensic Unit at Camp Francisco Camacho for laboratory examination.
Toledo now faces a criminal case for violation of Section 5 of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2003, for the sale of dangerous drugs, filed before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor.