DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan—Beware of that “friendly” pan de sal vendor who goes around the neighborhood.
Peddlers of illegal drugs have been using some of these vendors to deliver “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride), which are inserted inside pan de sal buns, said Supt. Benjamin Areola, action officer of the provincial police’s anti-illegal drugs special operations unit.
Drug dealers, he said, also use bottle caps (tansan) to deliver shabu.
“The drug user throws money out of the window for the drug peddler waiting outside. As soon as the money is received, the peddler hurls back a dented bottle cap, containing shabu,” Areola told reporters in a forum here on Thursday.
He said their information showed that shabu distributed in Pangasinan comes from Cavite and Metro Manila.
Areola said the price of shabu had dropped because travel to Pangasinan from Metro Manila had become easier and faster due to the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx), Areola said.
Chokepoints
TPLEx had no police checkpoints so nothing hampers the shipment of illegal drugs from Metro Manila to Pangasinan, he said.
He said illegal drug peddlers have to deal with police checkpoints along major highways in northern Luzon, affecting the price of shabu sold in provinces and cities there.
Records of the Pangasinan police showed that it mounted 376 operations against illegal drugs from Jan. 1 to June 24 this year, resulting in the arrest of 511 suspects, and the seizure of 855 grams of shabu and 166 grams of marijuana. Criminal charges have been filed against 467 of these suspects.
Areola said the biggest haul of illegal drugs was recorded in Alaminos City, with 221 grams of shabu and 10 grams of marijuana.
The anti-drug operatives are also looking into reports that drug money had been transmitted through banks and money remittance facilities.
In Pampanga, a Chinese suspected of distributing shabu in Central Luzon was arrested by police and personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Imus, Cavite, on Monday.
Under watch
Jeoffrey Tacio, PDEA director in Central Luzon, said the government team seized a kilogram of shabu from Jessie Chua during a buy bust operation in a shopping mall in Imus.
Tacio said PDEA has been monitoring Chua’s activity since February. He said Chua entered into a deal with a PDEA agent, who acted as a buyer, for the purchase of a kilogram of shabu for P1.5 million.
Chua is detained at the PDEA jail in Camp Olivas in the City of San Fernando. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon