P1.3M shabu seized from Nigerian, 3 Pinoys in Bacoor

CALABARZON policemen yesterday arrested a Nigerian national and his three Filipino cohorts after they conspired to sell an estimated P1.3 million worth of shabu to an undercover officer in Bacoor City, Cavite, Police Regional Office 4-A director, Brigadier General Vicente D. Danao Jr. said.

The PRO4-A director identified the suspects who were arrested in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Bayanan in Bacoor City as Nigerian national Leo Ekechuwu, 38; Rodwin Arciaga, 36; Elsie Filoteo, 23; and Maynard Baldos, 38.

According to Danao, combined operatives of the PRO4-A Regional Special Operations Unit and the Cavite Police Provincial Office’s Drug Enforcement and Intelligence Units under Colonel Marlon R. Santos arrested the four at around 1:30 a.m. yesterday.

The arrests were made shortly after Arciaga and Filoteo sold shabu to an undercover officer in the area. Ekechukwu, who was with the two suspects yielded a liquor box found to be containing around 200 grams of the so-called ‘poor man’s cocaine’ worth P1.360 million.

Also recovered from the three and Baldos were several drug paraphernalia, a digital weighing scale, several mobile phones, the marked money and three Federal Republic of Nigeria passports bearing the photo of the African but with different names.

The suspects will be facing charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Santos said the recovered cellphones will be subjected to a data extraction by the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Division.