LUCENA CITY – Quezon police operatives arrested eight suspected drug pushers, including a 66-year old widow, and eight alleged drug users in simultaneous operations in four localities on Thursday, police said Friday.
Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police provincial director, said the suspects were nabbed by anti-illegal drug units from Lucena City, Candelaria, Pagbilao and Polillo police stations in buy-bust and raid operations in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
In Candelaria, Catalina Coronado, 66, and Roberta Malabanan, 45, were arrested in a buy-bust operation after the suspects sold a plastic sachet of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) worth P500 to an undercover policeman around 6:30 p.m. Police tagged Coronado as a “newly listed drug personality” in the area.
In Lucena City, operatives armed with search warrants issued by San Pablo City Judge Agripino Morga and led by Supt. Arturo Brual Jr., Lucena police chief, swooped down on the houses of four target street
drug pushers in Barangay Cotta.
Police nabbed three of their targets Carlo Amarillo, 27, Danica Pantua, 19, and Julio Belmonte, 35 and confiscated shabu worth P2,500. An improvised caliber .22 handgun, one improvised caliber .9mm pistol, several rounds of ammunitions and a “pana” (arrow) were found inside Belmonte’s house.
Roberto Baluyot Jr., the police’s fourth target, was not around during the serving of the search warrant.
But the police caught eight persons all engaged in a pot session inside Baluyot’s house which he had turned into a drug den.
The arrested drug users were Annabel Aviles, 33; Madelane Salvacion, 30; Christian Deploma, 22; Bryan Dublas, 23; Arlan Lecaros, 41; Ronald Mandac, 35; Ronald Baluyot, 22 and Mario Corsino Maravilla, 25. The suspects yielded eight sachets of shabu worth P5,500. Salvacion is listed as number 9 among drug personalities in Lucena.
In Pagbilao, policemen collared suspect Normelito Quizana Cueto, 28, in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Bukal around 12:30 p.m. Police seized two sachets of shabu worth P400.
In the island town of Polillio, policemen nabbed suspects Rickson Iwarat, 25 and Jaymar Bancal, 29, after police discovered a sachet of shabu and drug paraphernalia in a checkpoint in Barangay Atulayan shortly after midnight. JE/rga