Narcotics agents nab 5 in drive vs illegal drug trade

LEGAZPI CITY, Albay, Philippines — Joint elements of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the city police force arrested five suspected illegal drug peddlers in two separate buy bust operations in this city on Sunday evening as part of the intensified campaign against the illegal drug trade, a police official said Monday morning.

Four of the suspects were nabbed at a hotel along Penaranda St. in the city while the fifth suspect was arrested at a subdivision in Barangay Bariada at around 7 p.m., said Supt. Oscar Regala, city police chief.

He said the suspects yielded two medium size plastic sachets of shabu (methampetamine hydrochloride) with a street value of P1,000 to P1,500 per sachet and a small sachet of shabu with a street value of P500.

A glass tooter and a P500 bill were also seized from the suspects, said Regala.

The suspects, ages 20 to 28, were from Barangays Cruzada and Oro Site. Aside from the two villages, Barangays Sabang, Pigcale and six others were among the 10 villages in the city under close watch for the presence of illegal drug peddlers and users, said Regala.

Records of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency showed 146 villages across the Bicol Region are in the agency’s watch list as drug “hot spot” areas which are marked by the presence of drug peddlers and users.

In this watchlist, 34 barangays are in Albay; 24 in Camarines Norte; 41 in Camarines Sur; 14 in Catanduanes; 31 in Masbate; and two in Sorsogon.