GENERAL LUNA, Siargao Islands (MindaNews/08 January) – A Spanish national suspected of selling cocaine was killed in a reported shootout in this surfing capital on Wednesday dawn.
Police identified the suspect as Diego Lafuente. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Capt. Wise Vicente Panuelos, chief of police of General Luna Police Station together with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Caraga and Regional Mobile Force Battalion-Caraga launched a buy-bust operation against Lafuente early Wednesday at his residence in Poblacion 3.
“Right after the exchange of money and cocaine, he noticed men approaching him and he drew his .45 caliber gun and start shooting us,” Panuelos told MindaNews in an interview.
He said they rushed the suspect to the Siargao Island District Hospital for treatment but he was pronounced dead on arrival by the attending physician.
Panuelos said their poseur buyer got 10 grams of suspected cocaine from the suspect.
He said Lafuente also operated La Santa, a party house and apparel shop, Mam-on, an apparel shop, and White House, an accommodation business, all located in General Luna.
He said they recovered another 15 grams of suspected cocaine from the suspect after the shootout.
He said the substances were submitted to the crime laboratory while the suspect’s body was brought to the funeral home in Dapa town.
Col. Adolph Almedra, Surigao del Norte police provincial director tagged Lafuente as the number 1 drug personality in the region.
“We are very grateful to the people of General Luna for the successful operation because of their vigilance,” Almedra said on Wednesday.
Sometime in February last year, around 40 blocks of cocaine were found beached in San Isidro town in Siargao Islands.
Earlier, cocaine worth half a billion pesos was also found off neighboring Dinagat Island. (Roel N. Catoto/MindaNews)