INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City policemen arrested two Chinese nationals and seized some P25 million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu in a drug sting operation on Sunday night.
The arrest, the Quezon City Police District anti-illegal drugs (QCPD-DAID) unit said, might have effectively reduced the supply of illegal drugs for peddlers in the Fairview and Batasan Hills areas in Quezon City and in other Metro Manila cities.
Senior Inspector Roberto Razon, QCPD-DAID task group head, identified the suspects as Benson Lao, 51, of Guiguinto town in Bulacan; and Benedict Ong, 38, of Sta. Cruz in Manila. Both came from Hunan Province in the People’s Republic of China, he said.
“We identified them through their drivers’ licenses but they cannot speak a word of English nor Filipino,” Razon told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, adding that they have been verifying the authenticity of the licenses with the Land Transportation Office.
Razon said that the two were arrested shortly before 12 a.m. Monday along Regalado Avenue near Burbank Street in Barangay (village) North Fairview, where they sold a kilogram of shabu to a poseur-buyer.
The QCPD-DAID head pointed out that four more kilos of shabu were seized from a backpack in the backseat of the suspects’ silver Toyota Vios.
Razon said that five kilos of shabu were worth approximately P25 million, with the street value of a gram of shabu currently at P5,000.
“These two have been distributing around Metro Manila for a year,” he told the Inquirer, adding that his men conducted three weeks of surveillance on the two before the bust.
Razon said the suspects delivered bulk orders and only went to the Fairview and Batasan Hills areas in Quezon City when they had buyers. “They usually operated in nearby cities,” he said but did not specify where.
The QCPD-DAID unit chief told the Inquirer that the two had apparently stopped employing locals for their bulk deliveries, preferring to make the drops themselves.
The suspects were detained at the QCPD-DAID holding cell, as of Monday, pending the filing of drug charges against them in the city prosecutor’s office.
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