DRUG DEN IN DAGUPAN

A DRUG personality on a high-value target list and six other persons were arrested in Dagupan City on December 19 by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives.

The target of the operation conducted in Barangay Herrero Perez East, led by Dexter Asayco, provincial officer of PDEA Pangasinan, was Alexander Lopez, alias Bong, in whose residence the search warrant was served.

But at the time of the raid at past 11:00 p.m., six other persons were sniffing shabu in the adjacent house, also owned by Lopez, reportedly being used as a drug den.

Arrested with Lopez were Alvin Cercado, Jun Fernandez, Mark Calulut, Marvin de Gracia, Nestea Regacho and Raymundo Rimundo, a traffic enforcer in the town of Calasiao.

Eleven small sachets of suspected shabu weighing 25 grams valued at P200,000 were seized in raid.

Barangay Herrero-Perez East is one of the 31 barangays in Dagupan reported earlier by the police as already drug-cleared.

Lopez was reportedly already arrested in July by Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) agents for illegal possession of firearms and was out on bail at the time of his recent drug arrest.

Asayco said a positive test-buy operation by a PDEA agent led to subsequent surveillance and the raid.

P/Chief Inspector Marcos Anod, Dagupan deputy chief of police, said the police station is continuously monitoring all the barangays earlier declared drug-free.

Anod said there is a possibility that a cleared barangay will revert to status as drug-affected in which case the police and the drug-affected barangay are given 30 days by PDEA to again clear the barangay.

Meanwhile, Bismark Bengwayan, chief of Preventive Education and Community Involvement Section of PDEA Region 1, said 623 barangays and 14 municipalities/ cities Pangasinan have been officially cleared by PDEA. (Leonardo Micua/Nora Dominguez)

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