LUCENA CITY – Some 10 drug suspects were arrested by police in separate buy-bust operations in Rizal and Cavite provinces on Friday (Sept. 23) and Saturday (Sept. 24), reports said.
The Region 4A police said anti-illegal drugs operatives nabbed Mary Claire Rivera, Leslie Noche, Manuel Hibay, Alexie Paolo Nilo, Jean Michael Ealdama, Erwin Naval, Erwin Angeles, Joy Bernabe, and Levi Solano at a buy-bust conducted in a suspected drug den in Cainta, Rizal around 12:55 a.m. Saturday.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Ruben Piquero, Cainta police chief, said the members of the drug enforcement unit conducted the buy-bust operation at a condominium unit in Barangay (village) San Andres.
Confiscated from the suspects were 10 plastic sachets of shabu (crystal meth) weighing 90 grams with an estimated Dangerous Drugs Board value of P612,000.
“The operatives found the suspects while sniffing shabu. We believed that the place is also a drug den,” Piquero said in a phone interview Saturday.
He said police also found 150 grams of still unknown white substance. He said they were still waiting for the result of the laboratory test.
Police are still determining the source of the illegal drugs.
The suspects are under police custody and are facing charges of violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. The owner of the condominium unit will also be investigated.
Meanwhile, anti-narcotics agents in Dasmariñas City, Cavite busted Rolando Esguerra, 63, in Barangay Paliparan 3 at around 6:55 p.m., Police Colonel Christopher Olazo, Cavite police chief, said in a report.
The suspect, classified as an “HVI” or high-value individual in the local drug scene, yielded two sachets of meth weighing 25 grams with a DDB value of P170,000.
The suspect was also detained and is facing criminal charges.
READ: 2 killed, 118 drug suspects nabbed in Cavite police operations