Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Police believe rivalry among drug lords led to twin blasts

BEN SERRANO
Contributing editor

BUTUAN CITY— Authorities believes a rivalry among drug lords is one of the angles to be looked into in the two grenade blasts that injured several bystanders last week.

Residents have tipped that youngsters carrying high-powered firearms continue to roam around Purok 2, Barangay Ong Yiu selling shabu and ecstasy to drug addicts with impunity.

Another group of youngsters who do the same trade during nighttime in the neighborhood carry hand grenades, they added.

The residents, for fear of retribution, did not report these activities to lawmen until last Friday’s twin blast, which injured 14 persons and sent five others to the hospital.

Police said witnesses saw two motorcycle riding men threw the hand grenades in the area.

Police added drug lords were settling each other’s scores in the area as they said the personalities involved were the same as that of the shooting incident that occurred a week earlier.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Caraga Regional Office has pronounced the current street price of shabu in the region is at P14,000 per gram.

This scenario was believed to have brought intense rivalries to suppliers and pushers in the city, which includes some scalawag policemen.