A former Army sergeant was arrested yesterday for allegedly engaging in illegal drug peddling activities.

His arrest, incidentally, also led to the capture of a suspect in recent armed robbery and murder incidents in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Bago City Regional Trial Court Judge, a team of intelligence operatives fromthe Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, and local policemen, headed respectively by Supts. Leonardo Angcon and Calixto Mabugat, swooped down on the house of former Army SSgt. Violante Fernandez, that,is Brgy. 4, Kabankalan City.

SPO2 Junji Liba said the raid yielded three sachets of suspected shabu and assorted paraphernalia, P4,446 in cash, as well as seven live bullets of a .45 caliber pistol.

Two other persons identified as Dennis Santos and Sidney de Leon, who were at the house of Fernandez during the raid, were also endorsed to the Kabankalan City Police Station for investigation.

Liba said the thorough search on the residence of Fernandez, also led to the arrest of Bonifacio Galagate Jr., one of the two suspects charged for robbery with homicide, in connection with the P2 million robbery-hold-up incident in Kabankalan City, last month.

The arrest of Galagate also yielded a .45 caliber pistol with four magazines containing 22 live ammunition, two sachets of suspected shabu, P26,660 in cash, and an XRM motorcycle, he added.

Galagate and his companion, Richard Gonzales, have been the subjects of an intensified manhunt by the police, after they allegedly robbed at gunpoint an employee of a sugar trader of P2 million, and also shot dead her security escort in Feb. 15, also in Brgy. 4, Kabankalan City.

Mabugat, Kabankalan police chief, yesterday said they are investigating the possibility that Fernandez, a former Army staff sergeant, may havepersonal knowledge of the robbery-hold-up.

Before the incident, Galagate reportedly visited the residence of Fernandez, investigations of the Kabankalan police also showed.

While they were conducting a manhunt operation, Mabugat said Fernandez deniedhaving seen Galagate, 25, who was arrested yesterday at his residence in Kabankalan City.

Mabugat said their investigations also showed that Fernandez, who used to be assigned at a military intelligence unit, helped former rebel leader Bonifacio Galagate Sr., father of Bonifacio Jr., in processing his amnesty application.

The younger Galagate was tagged as the suspect in the fatal shooting of Celso Cari-an Sr., who also served as the bodyguard of Cheryl Begota, secretary of sugar trader Herminia Ledesma, who was divested of P2 million in cash at gunpoint.

Gonzales, on the other hand, was allegedly driving the getaway vehicle, police said. * GPB

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