CEBU CITY – A 41-year-old woman was known as a real estate agent in her place in Lapu-Lapu City.
It turned out Melissa Solitario was not only into real estate transactions.
Solitario, a resident of Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu, was arrested in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Cubacub, Mandaue at 11:55 p.m. Wednesday.
Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Central Visayas (PDEA 7) and operatives of the Cebu Provincial Police and the Madaue City Police Office seized at least 50 grams of suspected worth P340,000 from the suspect.
“She was a resident of Lapu-Lapu but her transactions were in Mandaue,” said PDEA 7 spokesperson Leia Organa.
Organa said the woman was capable of selling 300 to 500 grams of shabu a week.
Organa revealed that they were able to arrest Solitario after the PDEA 7 agents busted a drug den in Cebu City early in the day.
Hours before Solitario was arrested, anti-narcotics agents rounded up eight persons who were caught in a drug den in Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City.
One of the arrested persons was the alleged maintainer of the drug den identified as Ronilo Palparan, 52.
Organa said Palparan pointed to Solitario as the one who supplied him with illegal drugs.
Palparan’s revelation prompted the PDEA 7 to conduct another operation that led to the real estate agent’s arrest.
Arrested together with Palparan were seven other persons who were caught in the alleged drug den. They were identified as Walter Empenida, 46; Joselito Dinglas, 39; Roderick Lumba, 47; Giocarlo Lumasag, 25; Dante Rivera, 45; and Carmel Cabrera Galgo, 23.
Among the items seized from the drug den were 11 packs of suspected shabu with an estimated value of P74,800 and drug-sniffing paraphernalia.