The Department of Justice has submitted for resolution the criminal charges filed by the Philippine National Police against individuals linked by self-confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa.
This came after the investigating fiscals— Assistant State Prosecutors Aristotle Reyes and Michael John Humarang—received the memorandum summarizing the allegations of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Cebuano businessman Peter Lim, a respondent in the complaint for conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading, also submitted his memorandum detailing his defense last Sept. 25.
In his memo, Lim asked the DOJ to dismiss the criminal complaint against him, insisting that he was not involved in the illegal drug trade.
“There is no credible proof of my involvement in any transaction involving illegal drugs. There is, more importantly, no evidence of the corpus delicti [body of the crime such as money or illegal drugs] in this case,” Lim said.
Other respondents such as Lovely Impal, an alleged drug supplier of Espinosa, detained Chinese drug lord Peter Co, and Espinosa himself earlier filed their respective counter affidavits.
In its complaint, the PNP-CIDG accused Lim and company of involvement in illegal drug trade, citing drug transactions from February 2013 to August 2015 involving at least 90 kilos of shabu allegedly sourced from them, delivered at a grocery store in Makati City, and distributed by Espinosa’s men in Bohol, Samar, Northern and Southern Leyte, Biliran, and some parts of Cebu.
In particular, the complaint alleged that 20 kilos of shabu were sourced from Co on Feb. 5, 2013; 20 kilos from Lim on Feb. 16, 2013; and 50 kilos from Lim on June 7, 2015.
Four similar transactions and deliveries with Lim as supplier allegedly took place in 2014.