An anti-illegal drug cop, who was allegedly recycling and peddling illegal drugs, was killed in a buy-bust operation that also led to the confiscation of P1 million worth of shabu in Quezon City early yesterday morning.
Senior Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) chief, said Senior Inspector Ramon Castillo was slain in an encounter after a foiled drug sting around 3:35 a.m. on Dahlia Avenue in Barangay Greater Fairview.
Castillo had been an active officer of the QCPD’s Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Group (DAID-SOTG) since August 2015.
While he yielded negative in QCPD’s mandatory drug testing recently, Castillo was marked as a “ninja” cop, or a law enforcer who recycles and resells illegal drugs confiscated from previous operations.
“We have received an intelligence report from the higher headquarters about Castillo’s activity, so vinalidate natin,” he said.
A joint operation for the cop’s arrest was launched by the QCPD’s District Special Operations Unit, the Quezon City Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (QC-CIDG) and the PNP’s Highway Patrol Group-Special Operations Division (SOD-HPG) after he agreed to meet with an asset in front of a fast food chain on Dahlia Avenue.
However, Castillo reportedly sensed the drug sting even before the transaction was completed. To escape, the suspect rode his black Toyota Innova and engaged the police in a running gun battle along Regalado Avenue.
He was killed when lawmen cornered him near a hospital on Bullova St.
Eleazar said they found in Castillo’s car a sachet containing some 200 grams of suspected shabu with a street value amounting to R1 million.
Police also recovered spent shells of 9mm and .45-caliber pistols at the encounter site.
The QCPD director said they are now investigating the slain cop’s possible links to drug lords or big-time drug pushers.
Police said Castillo entered the service in 1997 and was assigned to Southern Police District-Las Piñas until 2007.
He was transferred to NCRPO’S Regional Mobile Group in 2008.
In 2009, he was assigned to QCPD, and in August 2015, he joined the DAID-SOTG where served as a team leader in previous anti-illegal drugs operations. (VANNE ELAINE P. TERRAZOLA)