3 alleged drug pushers nabbed in Cagayan de Oro

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Three suspected drug pushers were arrested and an unspecified amount of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) was seized from them during the raid by police on a shabu den here Friday afternoon, an official said Saturday.

Senior Inspector Ariel Philips Pontillas, chief of the police’s Precinct 1, said the suspected shabu den on Abellanosa Street was raided following weeks of surveillance.

Pontillas identified the alleged pushers as Ruben Amper, Virgilio Pagapular and Subahane Bayani, who yielded several sachets of the illegal drug and its paraphernalia.

“One of the houses there is where buyers can freely do their drug sessions,” he said.

Recently, authorities also raided suspected drug dens in the villages of Sto.Nino, Camaman-an, Nazareth and Ramonal. As in Friday’s raid, only small-time pushers were arrested in these places.

Asked why only small-time pushers were being arrested, Pontillas said suspected big-time drug traders do not deal directly with users, a modus operandi that provides them some sort of shield from identification by authorities.

“Instead, what they have are cellphones and they use channels to conduct their drug businesses,” he said.