Members of the CNMI Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested on Friday in Garapan an ex-convict who is allegedly active in selling methamphetamine or \u201cice\u201d on Saipan. <\/p>\n
John Richard Palacios De Leon Guerrero, 40, also known as Massi, was taken to Superior Court yesterday on charges of trafficking of controlled substance and possession of controlled substance.<\/p>\n
Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho maintained the $100,000 cash bail and set the preliminary hearing for Thursday, Aug. 25, at 9am.<\/p>\n
Assistant public defender Michael Sato was appointed as counsel for De Leon Guerrero. <\/p>\n
Citing defendant\u2019s prior convictions for burglary, theft, and illegal possession of controlled substance, assistant attorney general Barbara Cepeda recommended the $100,000 cash bail.<\/p>\n
DETF member Police Officer Roque K. Camacho stated in his report that last Tuesday, Aug. 16, a \u201cconfidential source\u201d informed him that John Massi, later identified as De Leon Guerrero, has been selling \u201cice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cconfidential source\u201d claimed that a week ago he\/she managed to buy $120 worth of \u201cice\u201d from De Leon Guerrero.<\/p>\n
Camacho said he also has personal knowledge that De Leon Guerrero was also involved in an ongoing DETF narcotics investigation.<\/p>\n
Camacho said during a buy-operation, the \u201cconfidential source\u201d managed to purchase .70 gross grams of \u201cice\u201d worth $120 from De Leon Guerrero outside his residence in Lower Miha in Garapan Thursday at noon. <\/p>\n
It was De Leon Guerrero\u2019s alleged drug associate who handed the \u201cice\u201d to the \u201cconfidential source.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear yet as of yesterday whether the alleged drug associate was already arrested. <\/p>\n
In May 2015, De Leon Guerrero pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a controlled substance and was slapped with a one-year prison term. In that case he reportedly engaged police officers in a car chase and threw a small bag containing \u201cice.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Leon Guerrero\u2019s father, former Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board chair Francisco Q. Deleon Guerrero, is currently serving a six-year prison term at the Department of Corrections for sexually abusing a minor girl. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of the CNMI Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested on Friday in Garapan an ex-convict…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11951,13046,4470,1609],"class_list":["post-234736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-detf","tag-john-massi","tag-lower-miha","tag-michael-sato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}