A 500-SQUARE-METER vacant lot being used as a parking area on Aurora Boulevard in Barangay Duyan-Duyan, Quezon City, turned out to be a busy drug den, according to authorities.
In an operation on Monday, the Quezon City Police District’s District Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (AIDSOTG) rounded up 15 men and three women who yielded drugs and various drug paraphernalia on the vacant lot at 1007 Aurora Blvd.
On paper, the property was being rented out as a parking lot for abandoned vehicles, including taxis, jeepneys and sedans, said AIDSOTG head Chief Insp. Enrico Figueroa.
But during the AIDSOTG’s buy-bust operation targeting lot caretaker Rey Simbo, it was discovered that Simbo had actually been dealing “shabu” or methamphetamine hydrochloride at the lot.
He was also offering the parked vehicles as “pot session” dens for an additional P10 or P20, according to Figueroa.
Most of Simbo’s customers were “drivers, mechanics, even operators,” of public utility vehicles, Figueroa said in an interview on Monday afternoon.
Figueroa said the property owner, whom he declined to name for the meantime, appeared unaware of Simbo’s sideline.
The Quezon City police’s AIDSOTG ended up confiscating 15 to 20 sachets of suspected shabu from the drug den, five of which were recovered from Simbo alone.
The estimated value of the seized narcotics totaled P12,000 to P15,000.
Figueroa said that barangay officials were now mulling the complete closure of the vacant lot cum parking space.