PNP: Drug rings use addicts as pushers

BUSTED Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento (right), Quezon provincial police chief, inspects the guns seized from suspected drug users who have reportedly been recruited by syndicates as pushers. Supt. Arturo Brual (second, from left), Lucena City police chief, says the new pushers fill the void in the drug trafficking network. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

LUCENA CITY—With the arrests of drug pushers in villages, police authorities have found out that drug syndicates are recruiting addicts to replace the busted traffickers.

“That’s how fast they are replacing arrested drug pushers. The syndicates entice addicts to sell ‘shabu’ (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to fill the void in the network,” Supt. Arturo Brual, Lucena police chief, told the Inquirer on Monday.

Early on Monday, Lucena anti-illegal drug operatives with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency agents arrested Lawrence Delana, 39, and his associate, Michael Ace Sigmund Buligan, 25, after the two sold a plastic sachet of shabu to a police “asset” at Barangay Dalahican around 6 a.m.

Police seized seven sachets of crystal meth weighing 16.97 grams and costing P32,320 from the suspects, both drug users.

Delana also yielded an unlicensed 9mm cal. pistol with 10 bullets in the magazine.

New suppliers

The suspects, who were both not on the list of suspected drug pushers, were among new suppliers of shabu in the coastal village catering to drug users, mostly fishers and port workers, according to a police operative.

Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police provincial director, said operatives led by Supt. Marlowe Torina also arrested Arjay Zamora in a buy-bust operation at Pleasantville Subdivision, Barangay Ilayang Iyam, on Sunday morning.

Police seized 78 grams of shabu with a street value of P144,300.

Brual said Zamora, who was not on the list of local drug pushers, was also a newly recruited shabu distributor.

He said Zamora’s activity was disclosed by drug pushers who were arrested in recent simultaneous operations at Barangay Cotta.

The crackdown continued.

On Sunday, police arrested Bernardo Palaganas in another buy-bust operation in the village.

Police seized shabu weighing 4.5 grams and worth P8,325 from Palaganas, tagged as one of the major suppliers of illegal drugs in the area.

On March 23, police arrested three suspected drug pushers who were major suppliers of shabu in the same village.

One of the suspects yielded an improvised .22 cal. handgun, one improvised 9mm cal. pistol and several rounds of ammunition.

The operatives also arrested eight people in a pot session inside one of the suspect’s house that he had turned into a drug den. The drug pusher was not around during the raid.

Arming pushers

“The suspects pointed to Zamora, also a drug user, as the source of their shabu,” Brual said.

He suspected that the syndicates were supplying firearms to newly recruit pushers for protection.

“The recruits were also given their free supplies of shabu for their personal use as incentives,” said an operative.

The agents declined to identify the people behind the drug syndicates so as not to jeopardize their operation.