CHARGES were filed on Tuesday against the couple from Silay City, Negros Occidental who yielded an estimated P18 million worth of suspected “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) at Dumangas port in Iloilo on Sunday night.
Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, director of Iloilo Police Provincial Office, said the suspects, Jose Alberto Pinaga, 32, and common-law wife Maebelle Belmonte, 30, were charged for violation of Section 5 (sale of dangerous drugs), 11 (possession of dangerous drugs), and 26 (attempt and conspiracy) of Republic Act 9165 or Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 before the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
Pinaga and Belmonte are detained at Dumangas Municipal Police Station.
The couple, who were on board a white pick-up truck, was arrested in a drug bust at the port while on their way to Negros Occidental through a roll-on, roll-off vessel.
Authorities seized from the suspects a kilo of shabu, small sachets of the same illegal substance, mobile phones, and the P50,000 drug bust money.
Tayaba dismissed reports that the couple distributed illegal drugs during the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City.
Superintendent Noel Polines, chief of Silay City Police Station, said Pinaga is believed to be the right-hand man of the city’s high-value target Michael Divinagracia.
Polines said that when Divinagracia was arrested for illegal drugs in a raid last year, Pinaga was assigned to secure drug supply from their sources in Luzon.
“Their transaction continued although he (Divinagracia) was detained,” he added.
Polines said that Pinaga has safe houses in Bacolod City.
Pinaga is under the station’s drugs target list while Belmonte is under the station’s drugs watchlist.
Based on their latest monitoring, Polines said Divinagracia was sighted in the city last December after he posted bail, but he reportedly went to Manila.
Mayor Mark Golez commended the police for a “job well done,” following the arrest of the couple.
“It is a big blow to the operations of the syndicates in the city of Silay and in the province of Negros Occidental,” Golez said.
