SAN PEDRO CITY –– A suspected drug pusher was killed in a buy-bust operation in Rosario, Cavite on Wednesday while 122 others were arrested for various criminal offenses in Cavite and Quezon provinces.
The slain person, identified as Joel Enriquez, was killed in a shootout with the police at 12:20 a.m. in Barangay Ligtong 2 of Rosario, the Cavite police said.
Enriquez allegedly resisted arrest by shooting at an undercover policeman. The police returned fire and killed the suspect instantly.
Recovered from Enriquez were five sachets of suspected shabu (crystal meth) and a .38-caliber gun, the police said.
Cavite police director Colonel Marlon Santos, in a Viber message, said the buy-bust in Rosario was part of an overnight simultaneous police operation in the province.
He said they also arrested 118 people for illegal drugs, illegal gambling, and for violating pandemic quarantine protocols imposed by their respective local governments.
In Quezon province, police arrested four suspected drug pushers in separate operations.
Colonel Audie Madrideo, Quezon police director, identified the suspects as Paul Eilbert Mista, Melvin Labasan, Velmor Velasco, and Cherry Ann Mogol.
Anti-illegal drug operatives collared Mista after he sold P500 worth of shabu to a police agent in Barangay Rizal in Lopez town at 9:40 p.m., Madrideo said in a report.
Authorities seized from him three plastic sachets of shabu valued at P3,670.
Cabili and Velasco were busted in a drug deal in Barangay Calumpang in Tayabas City at 8 p.m., yielding 12.3 grams of meth with an estimated street price of P250,000.
Mogol, meanwhile, was caught in another buy-bust operation in Barangay 4 of Lucena City at 3 p.m. in possession of six plastic sachets of shabu worth P21,000.
The arrested suspects were known shabu peddlers in their respective villages, police said.