Cops nab 15 drug users in Lucena City pot session

LUCENA CITY – At least 15 drug users, most of them minor-aged college students, were arrested by police operatives in a raid on a drug den here Sunday afternoon, police said Sunday.

Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police director, said the lawmen conducted the raid at the house of the alleged drug pusher Royston Pagana, 24, in Purok (sub-village) Damayan in Barangay (village) Ibabang Iyam at around 2:30 p.m.

The lawmen seized five small plastic packets of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) of still undetermined quantity and drug paraphernalia from the house.

Armamento said at least 15 drug users were caught having a pot session inside Pagana’s house which he had also turned into a “shabu” sniffing den to accommodate his drug-user clients.

“The drug users tried to evade arrest and scampered to different directions but we eventually got them,” Armamento said in a phone interview.

“Most of the arrested drug users were minors,” Armamento said, adding that five of them were female college students, one taking up  a criminology course. He said two of the suspects were facing robbery-hold up cases.

Armamento said the raid was the result of an ongoing intensified anti-illegal drug campaign targeting drug dens.

“Most information on the existence of drug dens in different municipalities was being provided by concerned citizens. They phoned us and sent us text messages through our police hotlines,” he said.

On Saturday afternoon, Lucena City anti-illegal drug operatives and a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit also raided a drug den in Barangay Mayao Crossing on the outskirts of the city which resulted in the arrest of the drug den maintainer and three drug users. JE/rga