Trike driver tagged as ‘drug dealer’ nabbed in Cubao school area

MANILA — A community where several schools are located lost a headache on Monday, when the Quezon City police arrested a tricycle driver suspected of being a drugs supplier in the area, and four other people during an apparent “pot session” in his house.

The Quezon City Police District’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (AIDSOTG) arrested  tricycle driver Manuel Morillo alias “Ogie,” 33, in a buy-bust operation at his house along 18th Avenue, Barangay San Roque in Cubao.

Morillo was nabbed at 10:30 a.m. in front of house No. 36, 18th Avenue, right across two adjacent elementary schools. Morillo had sold a sachet of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to a police asset for P5,000.

Four other people—identified as Richard Basco, 37; Anacleto Medrano, 24; Mohammad Daud, 26; and Ana Cristina Calixto, 24 — all residents of Quezon City, were also caught inside the house “in the act of inhaling suspected ‘shabu,’” said Chief Insp. Enrico Figueroa, head of the QCPD AIDSOTG, in a report.

Recovered from the operation was one big sachet of suspected shabu, which was the subject of the buy-bust along with the marked boodle money; 17 other small sachets of suspected shabu, one of which was already opened; three strips of foil with traces of suspected shabu; two lighters, and an improvised glass tooter.

The case investigator, SPO3 Gerardo Quimson Jr., said the operation was launched after residents in the area had complained about Morillo being the “supplier” of drugs in the area. Quimson, however, said there was no reason to believe Morillo had been selling to the nearby school communities.

The arrested suspects will be facing complaints of selling and possession of illegal drugs and paraphernalia.  SFM