Couple arrested for using 3-month-old baby as drug mule
MANILA, Philippines — A couple who police said had been using their three-month-old baby girl as a drug mule in their selling operations were arrested in a buy-bust in San Juan City Tuesday night.
A police report identified the suspects as Aimee Aresio Danzal, 37; and Abu Omblay Angantap, 32.
Inspector Jeson Vigilla, head of the city’s drugs unit, said the two were arrested after they were caught in the act of handing over two sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu to a policeman who posed as a buyer at the corner of Road 5 and Road 10 in Barangay (village) West Crame around 9:30 p.m.
A policeman who was part of the team that conducted the buy-bust operation but who refused to be identified for not having been authorized to speak on the matter said the sachets handed were taken by Danzal from the diaper of their 3-month-old baby girl, whom she (Danzal) was carrying at that time.
“(The baby) was only three months old. Not even six months old. She was so small…,” he said.
According to Vigilla, the minor was also used by the suspects when they sold drugs to another policeman who posed as a buyer during a test-buy last week.
Article continues after this advertisementHe said the test-buy—which preceded the actual buy-bust— was first held to determine whether the initial information the police received about the couple engaging in illegal drug operations using the child was true.
Article continues after this advertisement“E (the information) turned out positive (during the test-buy) so the buy-bust was held afterwards,” he said.
Senior Supt. Joselito Daniel, the city’s chief of police, said the baby might have been used for the couple’s illegal activities even when she was as young as a month old, but added the couple has been selling drugs “for years.”
“Maybe they (use) the baby because…people wouldn’t think there would be any drugs there, unlike if it was an adult (carrying the drugs),” Vigilla said.
The source who refused to be identified said when the drug operatives arrested the couple during the buy-bust operation, Danzal, who has been going by the alias Aimee Angeles, refused to hand over her baby to authorities and “made a scene (nagwala)” instead.
“Kumbaga, she was really clutching (the baby). E the bones of the child were still brittle,” he said.
He said a “commotion” ensued when several neighbors sympathetic to the suspects rushed to their aid.
“But in the end, (we) managed to get to the child … Some of the neighbors even thanked us (for arresting the suspects),” he said, adding the two were “notorious drug-pushers.”
Apart from the drugs which Daniel said were worth an estimated P1,000, a P50 bill, five P20 bills and a Nokia cell phone which police said contained incriminating messages were retrieved from the couple.
Several deposit slips amounting to P77,900 were also recovered from them.
The source said the slips were “remittances” by the suspects to their supplier, who was not named.
“The supplier gives the drugs to the couple, and once the couple sells them, they remit the proceeds to the supplier via the bank,” he said.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer tried to talk to Danzal and Angantap, who have been detained in the San Juan Police headquarters, but they have refused media interviews.
Daniel said the baby has been turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Charges for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act are set to be filed against the suspects.
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