Pubdate: Tue, 03 Dec 2002
Source: Sunstar Pangasinan (Philippines)
Copyright: 2002 Sunstar
Contact:  http://www.sunstar.com.ph/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1726
Author: Fred P. Macaraeg

COPS TO GO AFTER PANTAL DRUG DEALERS

INTELLIGENCE operatives of the Dagupan City Police Office have been
monitoring the movements of suspected drug personalities in Barangay
Pantal.

Chief Insp. Rogelio Danoli, chief of the police intelligence section,
said although his group is busy with other police activities and
operations, "we have been undertaking surveillance in Pantal."

He said police operatives already coordinated with local officials led
by barangay captain Mario Rayos for help in monitoring the activities
of drug dealers and users in their community.

The City Anti-Drug Abuse Council has found Pantal as having the most
drug abuse problem while Bonuan Gueset was tagged as having the most
number of drug dealers among the 31 barangays in Dagupan City.

It will be recalled, however, that one of the arrested five big-time
drug dealers at the Dagupan Garden Hotel on Wednesday last week is
Larry Ferrer from Pantal.

Ferrer, together Antonio Montoya Jr. and Ferdinand Dunca, both of
Rosales town, had been caught by police operatives in the act of
repacking shabu in one of the rooms of the hotel.

On the other hand, Rayos admitted that his barangay is becoming the
haven of drug pushers and users that he vowed to help the police clear
the community of the social menace.

"We have to protect the youth and to sway them away from the illegal
drugs to assure their better future and do not end up as problems of
society. We should also assure peace and security of the people in
community as it is beyond our knowledge that several crimes that had
been committed are drug-related," he said.

Meanwhile, Danoli said the arrested drug pusher in Barangay Calmay in
Dagupan is a small-time drug dealer.

Santy de Vera was also caught in the act of repacking the illegal
crystalline drug in his house when the police operatives were about to
serve the search warrant issued by the court. Confiscated from his
possession were six small plastic sachets of shabu and other drug
paraphernalia.

Danoli said the drug seized from De Vera is too small as compared to
the shabu confiscated from the five drug dealers at the hotel.

Results of the examinations on the evidence seized in the two
incidents proved they are positively methamphetamine hydrochloride, he
said.
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MAP posted-by: Derek