Two Sisters Arrested For Allegedly Selling Nubain

[Medic Mike]

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

TWO teenage sisters were arrested by police for allegedly peddling Nubain during a buy-bust in Barangay Kamagayan, Cebu City late Monday night.

In Barangay Quiot, Cebu City, a suspected drug pusher was nailed by police and yielded some P40,000 worth of alleged shabu.

Senior Supt. Conrado Capa, deputy regional director for operations of Police Regional Office (PRO) 7, said these were the results of their second week of intensified operations against illegal drugs.

Last week, police collared 27 people and seized P5.1 million worth of shabu in separate operations in Cebu City, Mandaue City and Talisay City.

In the latest buy-bust, Capa said minors have been widely used in the country to “do the dirty work of criminals” because they can’t be held criminally liable.

“That’s really our setback because they can’t be put to jail because of the law,” he said yesterday.

In for a surprise

Intelligence operatives of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) arrested Jane, 15, and Shiela, 13, (real names withheld) in Sitio City Center at 10:30 p.m.

They were caught with 63 ampules of Nubain worth P12,600. Nubain, or nalbuphine hydrocholoride, a painkiller, was reclassified as a dangerous drug in 2011.

Supt. Romeo Santander, head of CCPO’s City Intelligence Branch, said the operation came after the San Nicholas Police Station confiscated ampules of Nubain recently and was able to trace the other peddlers.

Santander told Sun.Star Cebu they were shocked upon learning they were dealing with minors last Monday.

He said they were told by an informant the suspect was a woman. They found out later the suspect was a minor when a police poseur-buyer bought an ampule of Nubain worth P200 from Jane.

The operatives swooped down on Jane’s house and found Shiela with ampules of the regulated drug.

When interviewed by police, the girls said they resorted to the illegal drug trade after their father left them three years ago.

They told police that a certain James delivered the Nubain to them. They earned P5 to P10 per ampule.

Their customers, San-tander said, were reportedly students and workers who visited them for a shot of Nubain. Their mother was in the hospital during the arrest.

Out-of-school youths

“Aware ilang mama sa ilang pagpamaligya (Their mother knew what they were doing),” he said.

The sisters were turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Services of the Cebu City Government.

Jane reportedly goes to Zapatera Night High School as a first year high school student while Shiela is in grade 6 at the Zapatera Elementary School.

When Sun.Star Cebu visited the schools yesterday, Victoria Nuñeza, one of the teachers of Zapatera National High School, said Jane enrolled last June but she hasn’t been to class.

Nuñeza said she became Jane’s adviser in 2011, but she didn’t hear any reports that Jane was involved in the illegal drug trade.

The Zapatera Elementary School has no record of Shiela being a student.

Santander said they will be evaluating if they could file charges against the girls.

Republic Act 9344, or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, states that offenders below 15 can’t be prosecuted and imprisoned in any government jail.

Those that are 15 to 18 years old shall be free from criminal liability and subjected to an intervention program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development, unless there is proof the minor acted with discernment.

Santander said they were also elated the girls were caught because they were prone to prostitution in Barangay Kamagayan, considered as the city’s red-light district.

Ex-convict

In the separate operation, the Regional Police Intelligence Unit (RPIU) of PRO 7 arrested Christopher Anticristo, 39, in Barangay Quiot.

Seized from Anticristo were 12 medium packs and some 168 small packs of shabu worth P40,000 and a .38 pistol with three live bullets.

Anticristo’s arrest came after police received a complaint regarding an armed person in Sitio Ubca II at 5:30 p.m.

Senior Insp. Romeo Sentinta Jr. of RPIU said Anticristo is considered a level 2 drug pusher who could dispose of some 200 grams of shabu per week.

Anticristo, when interviewed by reporters, denied owning the gun and drugs. He said he was only standing outside his house when police charged him.

“Giditso ra ko nila og dakop ug giingnan ayaw og sukol (They just arrested me and told me not to resist),” he said.

He was arrested two years ago for possession of drugs.

 

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 09