Bacolod City Jail intensifies
campaign vs. drugs in prison

Bacolod City District Jail-Handumanan warden, Chief Insp. Amelito Fuentes, yesterday said they are intensifying their campaign to curb the proliferation of illegal drugs inside the detention facility.

Fuentes was reacting to a report Wednesday that illegal drugs are proliferating anew at the Handumanan jail after the “Greyhound Operation” conducted by the regional Bureau of Jail Management and Penology on March 2012.

An informant claimed in an ABS-CBN report that illegal drugs are thrown over the wall behind the jail and sometimes, they are even carried in by female visitors. She added that drug couriers directly communicate with the inmates through cellular phones.

The informant said the inmates use and sell illegal drugs without the knowledge of jail guards.

Fuentes said they are not lax in their security, only that they find it hard to catch those who are into illegal drugs trade. He said some female visitors hide the drugs in their underwear, so the guards cannot find them.

He said they will buttress the wall behind the jail and strictly implement the rule on visitors.

Last March, several sachets of suspected shabu were seized from two inmates in an operation conducted by the RBJMP.*APN

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5 arrested in ‘pot session’

Five persons allegedly having a pot session were apprehended by members of the Bacolod City Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group at about 12:20 p.m. yesterday in Brgy. 2 in the city.

CAIDSTOG chief, Senior Insp. Neil Exaltado, identified those arrested as John Michael Jimenez, 26, of 18th Street in Brgy. 4; Joel Betua, 45, of Purok Bayanihan in Brgy. Banago; Nolan Odulio, 43, of Purok Lubi in Brgy.3; Roy Torres, 57, of Villa Lourdes in Brgy. Pahanocoy; and Lovernie Rama, 47, of Jesusa Heights in Brgy. Estefania, all in Bacolod.

Exaltado said they were conducting an anti-illegal drugs operation in Purok Sigay when they passed by an abandoned house and saw the five suspects having a pot session through the door that was left unlocked.

Four aluminum foils with visible traces of suspected shabu and two disposable lighters with improvised torch were recovered from the house where the suspects were apprehended, police record showed.

A Bureau of Fire Protection identification card, suspected to be fake, was also seized from one of the suspects, the police said.

The arrest was witnessed by Brgy. 2 kagawad Noe Romero Sr.

The suspects, who are now detained at the lockup cell of the Bacolod City police headquarters, refused to give their statements and were covering their faces when the media interviewed them yesterday.

The police said the suspects have been examined at the crime laboratory of the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office and illegal drug use charges are being readied against them.*APN

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