Department of Public Safety Commissioner Ramon C. Mafnas said Palacios was arrested in his car on a road in Chalan Kanoa at 5 p.m. The lawmaker, the commissioner added, did not buy a plane ticket to leave the CNMI as reported by the Saipan Tribune.
“That’s not true,” Mafnas said, adding that investigators handling the case had been keeping their eye on Palacios over the last few weeks.
“Anyone involved in drug trafficking is literally poisoning the members of the community and that is unacceptable and DPS will never tolerate such actions,” the commissioner said.
Palacios, Covenant-Saipan, told the Variety last week that he “might have used ice in the past,” but never sold it, and that he was already staying away from it. He indicated that he knew he was going to be arrested.
Variety learned that two of Palacios’s former girlfriends were hooked on illegal drugs and that it was one of them who informed on the Precinct 2 lawmaker.
Judge David A. Wiseman imposed a $60,000 bail on Palacios for two counts of “ice” charges.
First elected in 2007, Palacios easily won re-election in 2009 and was the top vote-getter in his precinct, which covers Chalan Kanoa and Susupe. He is the chairman of the House Education Committee.
He is expected to appear in Superior Court today for his bail hearing.
Variety learned that authorities set up five separate monitored walk-in operations and will conduct a search on Palacios and his property where “ice” and other paraphernalia were believed to have been stashed.
Authorities successfully bought “ice” twice from Palacios, but the lawmaker was tipped off about his impending arrest, Variety was told.
Special panel
Speaker Eli D. Cabrera, R-Saipan, said four of the seven members of the special committee on ethics and conduct that he created have already vowed to submit themselves to a drug test.
He said during the panel’s meeting at 10 a.m. last Friday, its chairman, House Floor Leader George N. Camacho, Ind.-Saipan, and members Reps. Edmund S. Villagomez, Covenant-Saipan, Teresita A. Santos, Ind.-Rota, and Fredrick P. Deleon Guerreo, Ind.-Saipan., agreed to undergo a drug test.
Santos was tested last Friday.
The other members of the committee are Reps. Trenton B. Conner, R-Tinian, Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan, and Joseph M. Palacios, R-Saipan.
Rep. Joseph M. Palacios in a separate interview said he will urge his colleagues to come up with the same rules as the Senate which requires all members to undergo a drug test.
