The Catanduanes police arrested 11 individuals last week as it intensified its multi-pronged campaign against illegal activities in the province.
Last Aug. 28, 2026, a 19-year-old unemployed resident of barangay Francia, Virac believed to be a street-level individual in the illegal drug trade was apprehended in a buy-bust operation mounted by the law enforcers from Virac Municipal Police Station led by deputy police chief PLt. Eliseo L. Villar Jr., together with personnel from the Catanduanes Police Intelligence Unit (CatPIU), Regional Police Drug Enforcement Unit 5 (RPDEU 5) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Catanduanes.
Confiscated from the suspect were one heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet containing white crystalline substance believed to be shabu that was sold to an undercover police officer, another sachet containing the same substance, and a self-sealing plastic sachet containing dried leaves believed to be marijuana.
The report estimated the suspected shabu to be weighing about one gram with a street value of P6,800 while the dried marijuana leaves weighed about 0.2 gram with a street value of P24.
Also seized from the target were the buy-bust money consisting of one genuine P500 bill and three counterfeit P500 bills with the same serial number, a brown envelope and a white iPhone with pink cellphone case.
The on-site inventory and marking of evidence were conducted in the presence of the suspect and designated witnesses, with the arrest documented using body-worn cameras.
Verification in the PNP Crime Information Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS) showed the suspect has no prior criminal records or standing warrant of arrest for any other case.
Now under custody of the Virac police, the suspect, whom residents identified as Jemuel Romero Sarmiento, will face appropriate charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 for the sale and possession of dangerous drugs.
Three days earlier, on Aug. 25, the San Andres police caught two natives of Caramoan, Camarines Sur in violation of Section 126 of RA 10654 or the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Act, while in possession or in the process of disposing illegally caught fish.
A mobile patrol in barangay Mayngawa at 10 PM that day spotted two men at the seashore while unloaded a suspicious cargo from a motorized banca that arrived from the mainland.
The police officers immediately verified the contents of the cargo which turned out to be fish with a total weight of 100 kilos.
The San Andres MPS headed by police chief PMaj. Francis T. Tabo I immediately sought the services of the deputized licensed fish examiner from Bato MPS to examine the fish, which was determined to have been caught with the use of explosives.
Earlier that Sunday, Aug. 24, the town police raided an illegal cockfighting site in barangay Manambrag and arrested eight men for violation of Presidential Decree 449.
The suspects, ranging in age from 25 to 72 years old and mostly from San Andres except for one who hails from Virac, were apprehended by personnel of the San Andres MPS and Catanduanes 1st Provincial Mobile Force Company led by Pat. Eleazar Torririt.
Among the items confiscated during the anti-illegal cockfighting operation were three fighting cocks and P1,921 in bet money.