Rosario Pineda, a 53-year-old laundrywoman in Quezon City, depended on “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to give her the energy to work.
On Wednesday, Pineda travelled almost 3 kilometers to get her shabu fix—only to be arrested along with 71 others during a police raid on three drug dens in a shantytown in Barangay Culiat.
Supt. Danilo Mendoza, commander of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 3, noted that only two of the 72 suspects were residents in the area. Most of those rounded up at the Salaam Mosque Compound—a slum community where the sale and use of drugs were reportedly rampant—came from as far away as Parañaque, Marikina and Caloocan City.
The raid conducted by the QCPD Station 3 in Talipapa also caught a woman who is four months pregnant and five minors, two of them only 12 years old.
Pineda lived in the nearby barangay, but like most of the arrested persons she went all the way to the area where shabu could be bought in small amounts at P15 to P350 per pack.
Aside from looking way older than her age, Pineda also appeared to be out of breath as she was being held for processing at the barangay hall hours after her arrest.
The three drug dens—concrete houses located on Lanao, Libyan and Mujahidin Streets—were allegedly operated by a man known only by an alias, “Bin Laden.”
None of the drug dens’ caretakers or any of the pushers, however, were found as they reportedly escaped before the raiders arrived.
Seized from the suspects were seven sachets of shabu, an improvised water tooter pipe, a weighing scale and aluminum foil.
QCPD director Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar said they would be charged for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. The suspects, he added, would be subjected to a medical checkup and drug tests while in QCPD custody.
Noting that most of the arrested drug users were not from Culiat, village officials and public safety officers blamed the drug dens for the high crime rate in their area.