PCG: Joint elements of Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) of Region 6 and Task Force Puerto, together with the personnel of Coast Guard Sub-Station (CGSS) Dumangas and Coast Guard K9 Unit, confiscated one kilogram of shabu amounting to a market value of 18 million pesos in a buy bust operation at Dumangas Port, Iloilo yesterday, January 28.

According to reports received by CGSS Dumangas from personnel of IPPO, there was a suspected shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) inside a white Chevrolet Duramax that was scheduled to depart the said port bound for Bacolod City via RoRo on that night.

Immediately, the said team conducted a joint buy bust operation and successfully intercepted the subject vehicle with two suspects at the premises of the reported site.

Coast Guard K9 working dog “Brent” and its handler, conducted visual search inside the vehicle and positively identified one big and four small pieces of heat-sealed transparent plastics containing suspected shabu inside a shoebox.

The team apprehended the suspects identified as Jose Alberto Kilayko Pinaga, 32 years old and his live-in partner Maebelle Belmonte Poblador, 30 years old and both residents of Brgy. Mambulac, Silay City, Negros Occidental.

After conducting inventory of the confiscated shabu, the suspects and the recovered illegal items were turn-over to the personnel of IPPO for proper disposition.

On January 29, 2018, Lieutenant Commander Ramil A Palabrica PCG, Station Commander of Coast Guard Station Iloilo, together with the Sub-Station Commander of Dumangas, attended the press briefing and presentation of the intercepted suspects and the confiscated illegal items at Rio Hall, Camp Delgado, Iloilo City.