Drug Raid Kills Two

●An exchange of gunfire ensued after suspects recognized policemen acting as buyer in a buy-bust operation in Lapu-Lapu City.

Shootout erupted during a police-initiated buy-bust operation in Lapu-Lapu City on Monday afternoon killing two suspected drug peddlers and wounding police officers.

The police identified the slain suspected drug pushers as Marlon Yongco, 29, of Sitio Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City and Romeo Daleon, 30, a resident of Barangay Looc, Lapu-Lapu City.

Police Officer-3 Joseph Villamor, 38, who acted as the poseur buyer, sustained a gunshot wound on his abdomen and is presently confined at a hospital in Cebu City.

Senior Insp. Rogelio Pineda Jr., chief of the Lapu-Lapu City Police office city intelligence branch, said another suspected drug pusher Romulo Marinay, 56, of Barangay Duljo-Fatima in Cebu City also sustained a bullet wound in his leg.

Marinay was rushed to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City.

Although Villamor was hit, Pineda said the policeman is already in a stable condition.

In the planned transaction, it was Villamor who carried the marked money and approach a black Sedan vehicle (WHK 358) where the suspects were waiting as the transaction was supposed to take place inside the said vehicle. But probably one of the suspects recognized Villamor as a policeman that prompted one of them to shoot him hitting on his abdomen.

After the other policemen heard that Villamor was shot by the drug peddlers, immediately they came out and the exchange of gunfire ensued killing Daleon and Yongco.

Villamor is already well-known to the drug personalities because he used to be a member of the defunct Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) operatives in 1994.

Police recovered a .45 caliber pistol near Yongco’s body.

It was reported that aside from the pistol, the police also recovered 13 small sachets with white crystalline powder believed to be shabu and another two medium-sized sachets from Marinay.

Several empty shells coming from a .45 caliber ammunition and from a 9 millimeter pistol were recovered inside the suspects’ vehicle.

Pineda said the buy-bust operation was conducted in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) after a two-week surveillance and negotiation with Daleon.