Cops nab 8 drug suspects in Quezon operations

Shabu seized during a buy-bust by PDEA (CDN FILE PHOTO/ CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

LUCENA CITY — Police arrested six suspected drug pushers and two users in operations in Quezon province, police said Sunday.

Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police provincial director, said the newly created police anti-illegal drug teams nabbed the suspects in Lucena City, Tayabas City and the towns of Candelaria and Mauban.

On Saturday, Lucena police operatives arrested Mark Harris de Ocampo, 29, and Rodolfo Aldovino, 41, after the suspects sold “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to an undercover cop in a buy-bust operation in Barangay (village) Cotta around 3 a.m. Police seized three plastics sachets of shabu worth P3,300 from the suspects.

The same police unit also caught suspects Edgardo Roxas, 65, and Richard Verzonilla, 29, while they were sniffing shabu. The two suspects yielded shabu worth P600.

In Candelaria, operatives arrested Marcelo Pilapil, 33, in a buy-bust operation after he sold a sachet of shabu worth P500 to an undercover policeman in Barangay Sta. Catalina Norte on Friday.

In Mauban, the anti-illegal drug unit arrested Jonuel Peñamora, 23, street drug pusher, after he sold shabu worth P100 to a police agent in Barangay Sadsaran on Thursday.

In Tayabas City, police nabbed Rodel Metran, 34, and his companion Cristina Abadilla, 25, after they sold a sachet of shabu to an undercover policeman in Barangay Lita. Police seized “shabu” worth P1,200 from the suspects.

Armamento said the suspects were considered  “small time” in the illegal drug trafficking.

“But their continuous arrests oftentimes provide vital information about the syndicate. Their arrests also reduced the number of drug peddlers in the community,” he said.  SFM/rga