A DRUG suspect was killed while a woman tagged as number one on the drug watch list of the Masambong police station was arrested along with 34 others in two entrapment operations in Quezon City over the weekend.
The slain suspect, a man identified only as alias “Bubot Panotes,” was killed in a shoot-out with the police at his house in Phase 3, Lupang Pangako, Barangay Payatas, at 12:10 p.m. on Sunday.
According to the police, Panotes’ house was being used as a “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) “tiangge.”
Operatives of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 6 in Batasan said they went to the suspect’s house to buy P10,000 worth of shabu.
Cover blown
However, Panotes and two other cohorts discovered their true identities and fired at the undercover policemen, triggering a firefight. The suspect was killed while his companions escaped.
Recovered from the house were a .38-caliber revolver and five sachets of shabu. Eight drug suspects who were inside Panotes’ house during the operation were arrested.
Meanwhile, Monica Delasan, 24, was caught redhanded as she was handing a sachet of shabu to an undercover policeman at 16 Gen. Segundo St., Barangay Sta. Cruz, Quezon City, around 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Authorities later on discovered that the house had long been used by Delasan as a drug den where one could buy and use shabu.
House caretakers, ‘guests’ arrested
Arrested with her were the house caretakers, Rommel and Hezel Jumawan, and 24 other people, some of them carrying drugs, inside the house. Most of them were from nearby barangays in Quezon City, while some were from Antipolo City.
Seized during the entrapment operation were 13 sachets of shabu, 23 aluminum foil strips, five lighters and two weighing scales.
Operatives said the house had rows of cubicles which could be rented by drug users for 24 hours for P250.
QCPD chief Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar said they found the suspects and the drug den through the information provided by concerned citizens.
“If there are other drug dens like these in Quezon City, we encourage them to immediately report this to us to stop the problem of illegal drugs in the city,” he added.