Cops nab ranking drug pusher in Quezon

Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police director, holds up a packet of “shabu” seized from pusher Miguel de Ocampo (in grey shirt), number two in the Quezon police drug watch list, and his female associate Josephine Ann Macasait. (Contributed photo)

LUCENA CITY – The number two drug pusher in Quezon province was arrested in a buy-bust operation Friday, police said Saturday.

Supt. Dennis de Leon, Lucena police chief, said operatives from Drug Enforcement Unit led by Senior Insp. Rodolfo Borromeo nabbed Miguel de Ocampo, 39, alias “Mac-mac”, in Barangay (village) Dalahican after he
sold a pack of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to an undercover policeman at about 4:00 p.m. De Ocampo was tagged as number two in the Quezon provincial police drug watch list.

Quoting De Ocampo, Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police director, said the suspect has been pushing drugs for more than four years and has never been arrested until Friday after concerned
citizens reported on his activities.

“After two weeks of surveillance, we finally got him,” Armamento said. The lawmen also arrested Josephine Ann Macasait, 36, De Ocampo’s associate in the illegal drug trade.

The suspects yielded six small plastic packets of shabu weighing 2.64 grams worth P4,800, one small plastic packet of marijuana and two mobile phones containing text messages of drug transactions.

Some of the messages confirmed the police information that shabu has become scarce due to the intensified drive against illegal drugs being waged by the Duterte administration.

A drug user confided to the Inquirer that a street price of shabu has increased from P100 to P300 to P400. CDG