Quezon police arrest 5 alleged pushers in weekend sweep

FILE PHOTO

LUCENA CITY – Five suspected village-based major drug pushers, two of them listed as number one on local drug watch lists, were arrested on Sunday and Saturday in police operations in Quezon province, police said.

Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police provincial director, said local police anti-drugs units in coordination with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) nabbed the suspects in buy-bust and raid operations in Lucena City, Tayabas City, Tiaong and Candelaria
towns.

In Lucena, operatives led by Supt. Marlowe Torina, arrested Bernardo Palaganas after he sold two plastic sachets of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to an undercover policeman in Barangay Cotta on Sunday at about 4:40 a.m. Police seized “shabu” weighing 4.5 grams worth P8,325 from the Palaganas, tagged as one of major suppliers of illegal drugs in the village.

In Tiaong, police armed with search warrant swooped down on the house of Ronald Mangubat Dizon in Barangay Anastacia on Saturday and confiscated five sachets of shabu weighing 11.8 grams worth P21,240.

In neighboring Candelaria town, cops collared Mary Jane Pamatmat and Willy de Chavez, her associate, in another buy-bust operation on Saturday. The suspects yielded four sachets of “shabu” weighing 4.42 grams and worth P8,000.

Police tagged Pamatmat as number one on the list of drug personalities in the town.

In Tayabas, policeman arrested Arvin Laguna in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Opias also on Saturday. The suspect, number one on the local drug watch list, was caught with six small sachets of “shabu” worth P1,200. CBB/rga