2 drug suspects fall in Lucena buy-busts

LUCENA CITY — An alleged notorious shabu (crystal meth) peddler and a neophyte in the illegal drug trade were arrested in buy-bust operations here on Wednesday. The suspects were identified as Russel Aranas and John Derick Valencia, police Lieutenant Colonel Romulo Albacea, Lucena police chief, said in a report. Aranas was nabbed by cops after he sold a pack of shabu to an undercover police officer acting as a drug user in Barangay Ibabang Iyam around 3:40 p.m. The suspect, included in the Quezon police list of identified drug pushers in the province, yielded seven plastic sachets of meth with a street value of P34,680. Earlier, police agents also collared Valencia in another part of the village around 9:30 a.m. Authorities seized six sachets of shabu worth P31,000 in the street market. Police tagged the suspect as a “newly identified drug pusher” in the city. The arrest was the result of Oplan Sacleo or “Simultaneous Anti-Criminality Law Enforcement Operation” which replaced the police “one-time, big-time operation,” an all-out war against all local forms of criminalities in a given period. The suspects were detained and are facing charges for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.