Cebu PDEA agent caught ‘pushing’ in Bohol
STEVEN Valles is a sophomore law student and an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7.
But the 34-year-old Toledo City native won’t be able to take his exams today after he was arrested in a buy-bust operation in Tagbilaran City, Bohol last Friday night.
The police recovered from Valles three and a half packs of what they believed was shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride.
The packs’ street value is pegged at P100,000, said Senior Supt. Constantino Barot Jr. in a phone interview.
Valles was caught outside the gate of the agency’s office in Barangay Poblacion 2 by intelligence operatives of the Tagbilaran City Police Office.
Barot, director of the Bohol Provincial Police Office, said they recovered P85,000 in buy-bust money from the suspect. He said only P5,000 in P1,000 bills were the marked bills.
He said Valles resisted arrest and tried to pull out his service .45 pistol, but the police overpowered him.
The suspect’s supply, according to Barot, reportedly came from Cebu.
“He is a big fish,” he said.
Before the arrest was made around 8:15 p.m., Barot said they received text messages that informed them of Valles’s alleged illegal drug trade. The police then conducted two months’ surveillance on Valles.
PDEA 7 Director Adrian Alvariño, in a separate phone interview, said they started an administrative investigation on Valles yesterday.
He sent an agent and two lawyers to Tagbilaran City to talk with the suspect and the local police.
“We will not tolerate his act if indeed he was really involved in drug pushing,” Alvariño said. “He should suffer the consequences.”
The official said he advised Valles to get his own lawyer “out of delicadeza.”
He said Valles, who became an agent in 2009, was on leave since last week. Valles’s wife told him they went on vacation in Boracay.
“She said Valles went to Bohol so he could prepare himself for the exams,” Alvariño said in Tagalog.
An agent close to the suspect said Valles was detailed first in Tagbilaran City. In his spare time, Valles attended law classes at Bohol Institute of Technology.
The agent, who refused to be identified, said Valles was transferred in Cebu City early this year.
“We cannot believe he is jailed,” he said.
Barot said they did not receive reports that Valles has cohorts in PDEA 7.
He said they will charge the suspect tomorrow with illegal drug selling, which is a violation of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
“We will pursue the case against him,” Barot said in Cebuano. “Hopefully, he will be convicted.”
“He should defend himself,” Alvariño said.