A man whose claim to be a church bishop was scotched by the Catholic Church has been arrested for using illegal drugs in Bacoor, Cavite in the Philippines.
According to Vicente Cabatingan, Bacoor Police chief, “Bishop” Richard Alcantara was caught in the act of sniffing methamphetamine hydrochloride, known locally as shabu, and was arrested after three months of surveillance operations, Philippine Star reported.
“It took us several months to collar him because we wanted to catch him….in the act of committing the crime and have hard evidence to stand in court. We have a video of him sniffing shabu,” Cabatingan said.
The police arrested Alcantara and an alleged accomplice on Thursday night. Alcantara claimed he was only conducting research on the effects of illegal drugs and that he told his parishioners not to use them.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) claims that Alcantara is not a member of the Catholic clergy, ABS-CBN News reported.
“Richard Alcantara is neither a Catholic bishop nor a priest of the Roman Catholic Church and is certainly not a member of the CBCP,” the organization said.