P200-M ‘shabu’ seized in Pasig condo unit

HIGH VALUE It’s end of the road for Manolito Carlos (in handcuffs), who allegedly delivered “shabu” by car to drug dealers from his condominium unit in Pasig City. —PHOTO COURTESY OF NCRPO

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila police on Monday night dealt a blow to drug syndicates after seizing some P200 million worth of “shabu” (crystal meth) from an alleged big-time dealer in his rented condominium unit in Pasig City.

Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), called Manolito Carlos, an alleged member of a drug syndicate operating in the metropolis, Calabarzon and Central Luzon, a high-value target.

Eleazar said Carlos was the “right-hand” man of a convicted drug lord serving time in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, citing intelligence information.

He said that one Edgardo Alfonso, who was killed in a shootout with antidrug operatives in Quezon City last Sunday, worked for the same convict.

Carlos denied working for a drug syndicate and a convict inside the national penitentiary.

Agents from the NCRPO Regional Drug Enforcement Unit seized 30 kilos of shabu concealed in packs of tea during a raid on his unit at a condominium on C. Raymundo Avenue in Barangay Rosario at around 7:30 p.m. on Monday.

P200K per transaction

Police estimated the street value at P204 million.

Police said Carlos stored drugs in his unit and delivered them by car to drug dealers. Carlos was arrested and charged in court for drug dealing in 2010, but was later cleared of the charges.

Carlos said he had been clean for years and had gotten involved in the drug trade for only a year, earning as much as P200,000 per deal.

“My family wanted me to stop, and I want to but I cannot. I’m afraid of my life, because they may get back at me because I already know too much,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Eleazar disputed the claim of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino that the recycling of illegal drugs was still rampant among law enforcers.

“Unless they can identify to us these said policemen with validated reports, the sweeping statement made by the PDEA Director is not necessarily true at face value,” he said in a statement. —With a report from Cathrine Gonzales