Busted QC drug peddlers used minors as ‘cover’

THE BATUGANS in QCPD custody. LYN RILLON

A couple were caught with more than P2.5 million worth of “shabu” in a buy-bust operation on Tuesday night in Quezon City, where police said they had minors in tow as “cover” to avoid arousing suspicion that they were into drug dealing.

Abdul Abbas Batugan, alias “Charlie,” 25, and Nasimah Abedin Batugan, 23, of Tala, Caloocan City, were arrested after handing half a kilo of shabu worth P50,000 to an undercover agent, said Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Supt. Joel Pagdilao. Nasimah’s bag later yielded 14 more packs of the drug.

The QCPD arranged the transaction shortly before midnight near the corner of Quirino Highway and Commonwealth Avenue in Barangay Kaligayahan, where the couple arrived in a car with three minors in the backseat: Nasimah’s two sisters aged 13 and 14, and her nephew aged five.

The minors were there for a purpose, according to Pagdilao, who cited a tip about the Batugans’ modus operandi of bringing along children whenever they make deliveries. They supposedly help the couple come up with a “cover story,” he said.

“It was part of their modus. So when you see them in a barangay, you’d think they were just a family having an outing or visiting someone. You wouldn’t suspect them (to be drug dealers),” the official said.

The QCPD anti-illegal drugs task group head, Chief Insp. Roberto Razon Jr., said the two teenagers may be old enough to “discern” that they were being used for a criminal activity, but only the couple will be charged for Tuesday’s drug bust.

The minors were turned over to the city’s social welfare office.