A member of a robbery-holdup ring involved in illegal drugs and who has admitted participation in the killing of a taxi driver last month was arrested in a buy-bust operation before dawn yesterday in Valenzuela City.

Elements of the Station Drug Enforcement Unit (SDEU) led by Chief Insp. Jowilouie Bilaro arrested Ruel Valdemos, 36, of Barangay Marulas, also in the city, after he allegedly handed a plastic sachet containing shabu to a poseur-buyer in exchange for a P300 marked money.

The suspect was not included in the police and barangay drug watchlist but after several days of surveillance, lawmen were able to confirm his involvement in the illegal drug trade, prompting them to conduct a buy-bust operation past 1 a.m. along Anak Dalita Street, also in the same village.

When frisked, Valdemos yielded eight pieces of plastic sachets containing undetermined quantity of the illegal substance and the P300 marked money.

Bilaro said the suspect has been involved in a series of robberies in the city and neighboring Caloocan and was released from jail in 2015 after posting bail for a robbery case.

Although he denied involvement in illegal drug trade, the suspect confessed his participation in the killing of a taxi driver last month but said he only served as lookout.

Newly installed police chief Senior Supt. David Nicolas Poklay said his men are now hunting down the suspect’s cohorts in the killing of the taxi driver whose name was not immediately known.