Police arrest 13 in Lucena drug den raid

A drug user identified only as George uses a “tooter” to inhale smoke from melting metamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as “shabu” or “ice” from a strip of an aluminum foil heated underneath with a tiny burning wick of paper 01 August. AFP FILE

LUCENA CITY, Philippines – Police swooped down on a suspected drug den here and arrested two of its alleged maintainers. Eleven suspected drug users were also caught having a pot session Saturday evening.

A report from the Quezon provincial police headquarters said one of the den maintainers, Corazon Tabernilla, 49, sold P300 worth of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to an undercover police agent in a buy-bust operation in Barangay (village) Cotta at about 6 p.m.

The authorities then conducted a raid on Tabernilla’s house in the same village and caught 11 persons sniffing shabu. The suspects were residents of the city who all converged on Tabernilla’s house for a “pot session.”

Police also arrested an alleged accomplice of Tabernilla identified as Emerson Generali, 54

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Police seized 11 plastic sachets of shabu weighing 1.6 grams worth P2,960 and various drug paraphernalia. CBB/rga