By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) offers a bounty worth P100,000 for anyone who could provide information that would lead to the arrest or neutralization of the leader of the Caunda Drug Group.
BCPO director, Police Colonel Noel Aliño identified Camaria Caunda, the alleged leader of the drug group, the lone drug syndicate operating in the city.
Aliño refused to say any further details about Caunda’s background, but he confirmed that one of her right-hand group members had already been arrested in Cebu province.
The police director said he suspects Caunda is using buses to smuggle illegal drugs to other areas in Negros Occidental through Bredco Port.
Aliño said Caunda does not operate a shabu laboratory in the province, and police are also not monitoring existing links between Caunda and government officials.
The BCPO is still validating further information with regards to the drug group leader.
Initial evidence indicates that the Caunda Drug Group also had connections with the Cuadra Drug Group.
Aliño is confident that they will be able to topple the operations of the drug syndicate that has been operating in the city since 2019.
On Thursday, August 10, an alleged member of the Caunda Drug Group, 45-year-old Michael “Tata/Toto” Frias, was arrested with P14.3 million worth of suspected shabu at Purok Pablo Torre in the city’s Barangay Vista Alegre.
Police Captain Joven Mogato, City Drug Enforcement Unit chief, said Frias was arrested in 2009, but he was released after 10 years in detention at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.
He was reportedly supplying illegal drugs to various villages in Bacolod, Mogato said.
Last week, the BCPO also arrested another group member, 31-year-old Gycelle Bonagua, a resident of Pampanga province’s Angeles City, and seized an estimated P8.82 million in suspected shabu at Barangay Singcang-Airport.
Also arrested in the same operation were 43-year-old Michael Ramos of Rizal province’s Antipolo City, and 33-year-old Rizald Lapag of Purok Zaylan in the city’s Barangay 4./DGB, WDJ