59 arrested in Laguna drug raid—police

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna—Fifty-nine persons were arrested when police busted a “shabu tiangge” (drug flea market) in Biñan City, Laguna early Friday.

The raid was conducted after police served search warrants in 30 homes in a shanty community in Sitio Kabulusan Barangay San Antonio.

According to Senior Supt. Gilbert Cruz, Laguna police director, recovered during the bust were a still unidentified amount of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and firearms of different calibers—.38, .22, and 9 mm.

The arrests were made as the police in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) region stepped up its campaign against illegal drugs and loose firearms through raids and arrests in a region-wide police operation called Oplan Trojan War, which started last Monday and would end next Monday.

The arrest of the 59 persons brought to 389 the total number of persons arrested in the provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Quezon, and Batangas under Oplan Trojan War.

In Laguna alone, 62 persons facing arrest warrants for various crimes and 83 with involvement in the illegal drug trade had already been arrested in different municipalities, he said.

“We caught them by surprise, just like the Trojan horse,” Senior Supt. Gilbert Cruz, Laguna police director, said referring to a ruse used in the Trojan War of Greek mythology.

According to Senior Supt. Gil Meneses, regional police director, the name (Trojan War) was just for easy recall, “but we can also say that this is our declaration of war against crime.”

AS of Friday, the number of arrested persons in other provinces was as follows: 65 in Batangas; 45 in Quezon; and 81 in Cavite. Reports from Rizal province were not immediately available.

Meneses said the campaign was the continuation of an earlier anti-crime campaign—dubbed “Angry Bird” after a popular computer game—that was first conducted in Laguna last October and resulted in the arrest of 190 persons.