Chinese, 3 partners yield 10-kilo ‘shabu’ in QC bust

Four people were arrested, including a Chinese national, in a buy-bust operation Friday morning in Quezon City that recovered 10 kilos of “shabu” with an estimated street value of P50 million.

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) set a trap that led to the arrest of Kevin Ang Chua, 41, a Chinese staying in Binondo, Manila; Zhi Gui Wang, 32, a Chinese-Filipino based in Cubao, Quezon City; Al-Insan Pangandag, 26, of Dasmariñas, Cavite province, and Michelle Permali, 30, a native of Iligan City.

A poseur buyer sent by the QCPD’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Group arranged a transaction with Wang, who arrived in a black Ford Focus around 7:45 a.m. in front of a pizza restaurant at the corner of Katipunan Avenue and Xavierville Street for two kilos of shabu worth P3 million.

As the buyer and Wang talked, Chua arrived in a gray Mazda and he was followed minutes later by Pangandag and Permali, who got there in a silver Toyota Altis, QCPD director Senior Supt. Joel Pagdilao said in an interview.

It was Pangandag and Permali who brought the drugs the buyer ordered, Pagdilao said.

Members of the arresting team—composed of 14 plainclothesmen who waited in a parked vehicle nearby or posed as pedestrians—moved in right after the buyer handed payment to the suspects.

When searched, the Toyota Altis was found carrying eight more kilos of shabu.

The total drug haul could fetch up to P50 million if distributed in the streets, according to Pagdilao, who also took part in the operation.

The QCPD would check if the arrested suspects had links with Joseph Sy, another Chinese national who yielded five kilos of shabu when arrested in November last year, the official added. Rima Granali