Immigration lookout order issued vs. suspected drug lords Peter Lim, Kerwin Espinosa, 6 others

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has issued an immigration lookout bulletin against alleged drug lords Peter Lim, Kerwin Espinosa, Peter Co and five other individuals.

Issued last July 11, the lookout bulletin order directs Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel to report to authorities any attempt of the subjects to go out of the country despite the pending criminal complaint against them for illegal drug trading before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Also on the lookout list are Espinosa's bodyguard and driver Marcelo Adorco and his alleged hitman Ruel Manidlangan; righthand man Max Miro; Albuera, Leyte village councilor Jun Pepito, an alleged henchman for Espinosa; and Lovely Adam Impal, one of Espinosa's alleged top supplier of drugs.

Miro and Manidlangan had surrendered to the police last September.

Impal turned herself in to Philippine National Police chief Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa last December. She was eventually freed because there was no arrest warrant for her alleged involvement in illegal drugs at the time.

A month later, Impal was arrested by anti-drug agents in an entrapment operation in Iligan City on January 18.

Espinosa is currently under the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice due to his knowledge about the narcotics trade.

DOJ issues immigration lookout order vs. alleged drug lords Peter Lim and Kerwin Espinosa, 6 others over drug trading case. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/HUj10alSUg

— Virgil Lopez (@virgillopez) July 31, 2017

In a Senate hearing last year, Espinosa tagged Lim, a Cebuano businessman, as a top illegal drug supplier in Central Visayas.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had also said that Lim, who met with President Rodrigo Duterte a year ago to deny that he was a drug dealer, is the same man referred to by the President in the drug matrix released on July 7 last year.

"We were able to establish that the Peter Lim who appeared before the President and the NBI is the one and the same Peter Lim and that he is the same Peter Lim [referred to as] the alleged drug lord of Cebu," NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin said in December.

"The second part of the investigation, as to whether or not Peter Lim is indeed a drug lord, that is ongoing."

The NBI has yet to give an update on its probe on Lim's drug links. —ALG/KVD/KG, GMA News