A Nigerian national was killed in a buy-bust operation that yielded P13.6 million worth of shabu in Tarlac on New Year’s Eve, officials said.
Philippine National Police-Drug Enforcement Group Director Ronald Lee identified the fatality as Gabriel Onyechefula, a member of the West African Syndicate who, he said, had been luring Filipinos to become drug mules for them.
The operation was conducted around 10 a.m. on Thursday at a parking lot in Jefmin village in Concepcion.
The suspect pulled out his firearm upon sensing he was dealing with a police officer who had acted as a poseur-buyer. That prompted the officer to fire at the suspect to defend himself.
Onyechefula succumbed to a gunshot wound in his abdomen. Recovered from him were three transparent plastic bags containing around two kilos of shabu, buy-bust money, a caliber 9mm machine pistol and ammunition and two genuine thousand-peso bills placed on top of 14 bundles of boodle money.