A suspected “drug lord” on top of the Police Regional Office 12’s drug watch list was killed in an alleged shootout with police operatives in a housing village in General Santos City on Tuesday night.
Supt. Maximo Sebastian Jr., chief of the PRO-12’s Regional Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Force, identified the slain suspect as Conrado Medino alias Cocoy, who was listed as a notorious drug distributor and reportedly a part of a “big-time” syndicate operating in the region.
He said Medino was gunned down by joint RAIDSOTF and Regional Public Safety Battalion-12 operatives after allegedly resisting arrest during a raid on his family’s housing compound along Marcos Avenue, Litan Ville in Barangay Sinawal at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“He [Medino] suddenly opened fired when we entered the compound so we were forced to return fire,” he said in an interview over a local television station.
The suspect sustained several gunshot wounds in various parts of his body and was declared dead on arrival at the Dr. Jorge P. Royeca Hospital.
Police recovered at the scene Medino’s Colt caliber .45 handgun with six live bullets and a spent shell.
Sebastian said they launched the operation based on four search warrants issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 35 Judge Oscar Noel.
He said the main subjects were the houses of Medino, his mother Elizabeth, his brother Mark, his son Russel Cerera, and his live-in partner Jenelyn Balansag in barangay Sinawal and Apopong.
During a search at the slain suspect’s house, the police official said, they recovered two opened plastic sachets of suspected metamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, various drug paraphernalia and six motorcycles.
They also found four installed closed-circuit television cameras and related electronic devices that are now being evaluated by police anti-cybercrime group personnel, Sebastian said.
At Elizabeth Medino’s house, he said, they seized several plastic sachets containing blue crystalline substances and suspected “drug money” totaling P333,500.
Sebastian said they recovered from Balansag’s house five large sachets of suspected shabu weighing about 260 grams and with an estimated street value of P3.06 million.
“It appears that he [Medino] had been using Jenelyn’s house to store his shabu stocks,” the official said.
Arrested during the raid were Elizabeth Medino and Jenelyn’s parents Josephine and Rodrigo Balansag, who initially resisted the search and will be charged for obstruction of justice.
Mark Medino, Russel Cerera and Jenelyn Balansag were not present during the operation.
Three years ago, the slain suspect was arrested by the PRO-12’s Regional Special Investigation and Detection Team in a drug raid at a motel in General Santos City.
But he was able to post bail and reportedly resumed his illegal activities.
Since 2013, Sebastian said, they have launched several operations against Medino but he managed to elude arrest.