Albuera, Leyte Mayor Aides Caught in Buy-Bust Operation

Five arrested in Albuera, Leyte after a joint operation of the local police and the Police Regional Public Safety Battalion.

Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido, Albuera Police chief and team leader of the operation, said that they confiscated sachets of shabu weighing 238 grams worth around P1.9 million, two .45-caliber Glock 21 pistols, 33 pieces of live ammunition, cash amounting to amounting to P23,870 and drug paraphernalia.

The arrested suspects where identified as Marcelo Adorco, 40; Jeffrey Pesquera, 39; Jose Antipuesto, 36; Jessie Ocarez, 34; and Ernesto Dumalat, 20.

Adorco and Ocarez said that Mayor Rolando Espinosa provided them licenses to carry firearms in which Adorco said he needed the firearm as the bodyguard of the Mayor. Both failed to present documents for their guns.

The suspects were brought to the Regional Crime Laboratory of Police Regional Office 8 for documentation, pending the filing of proper charges against them. ●