FACTS:
A team of operatives rushed inside appellant’s house to arrest him after a “buy-bust” operation and conducted a search of the premises in the presence of a barangay official, the house owner and appellant himself. The search yielded dried marijuana fruiting tops and seeds.
ISSUE(S):
Whether or not the arrest and search were valid.
HELD:
YES. Appellant was arrested in flagrante delicto in the act of selling and delivering marijuana to the poseur-buyers. The subsequent search of his house which immediately followed yielding other incriminating evidence, and which became the basis of his conviction for possession of a prohibited drug, was a search contemporaneously made and as an incident to a valid warrantless arrest in the immediate vicinity where the arrest was made. That is a recognized exception to the general rule that any search and seizure must be supported by a valid warrant.
Judgment appealed from is AFFIRMED in toto.
