CAMP GEN. PANTALEON GARCIA, IMUS, Cavite – A suspected drug pusher was killed Monday midnight when he resisted police in a buy-bust operation on Pinagpala Street in Barangay Ligtong III in Rosario, the Cavite Police Provincial Office (PPO) reported on Tuesday.
Antonio Ledesma, alias “Tonyo,” 26, suffered bullet wounds in the body and was declared dead on arrival in a hospital in the municipality.
Recovered from the scene were Ledesma’s .45-caliber Taurus pistol with a magazine loaded with five bullets, one pink coin purse containing four small sachets of “shabu,” and the P300 buy-bust money.
Chief Inspector Dhefry A. Punzalan, Rosario police chief, said that Ledesma was categorized as pusher in his watchlist.
Punzalan said that Ledesma was also a suspect in robbery incidents in the area and a person of interest in a shooting incident whose victim was one Joel Mallari in Barangay Silangan I, also in Rosario, last Feb. 4.
In a report, PO3 Ellezer C. Tagalog, case investigator, said that Ledesma shot it out with a police team led by SPO2 Roberto Lacasa after he sensed that the drug buyer he dealt with was a police poseur,
The operation was conducted at 12:15 a.m. Tuesday. Ledesma had been under surveillance for weeks, it was gathered. (Anthony Giron)
