NBI raids drug den across barangay hall

WITHIN SPITTING DISTANCE The Manuyo Uno barangay hall (left) is just meters away from the house of Adrian Cristobal (house with white van in front) which is used as a drug den. —Dexter cabalza

Acting on complaints coming from residents in the area, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation’s Special Action Unit (NBI-SAU) raided a drug den just meters away from a barangay hall in Las Piñas City.

The Feb. 19 operation led to the arrest of Arlan Eugenio and Alvin Quijano on top of the seizure of a still undetermined amount of marijuana leaves and seeds, drug paraphernalia and a firearm.

The raid on the two-story house on Tramo Street in Barangay Manuyo Uno, however, failed to result in the arrest of the target, Adrian Cristobal, Eugenio’s brother-in-law. Quijano, a resident of Cavite, admitted that he was there to buy some marijuana and smoke it inside the house.

Target escapes

Cristobal, according to the NBI, managed to escape through a window in the back of the house. He took with him 350 grams of high-grade “shabu” or crystal meth worth P1 million.

The NBI-SAU, in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, was supposed to serve a search warrant issued by Executive Judge Reynaldo Alhambra of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 53 against Cristobal.

In its report, NBI-SAU said an informant contacted Cristobal and ordered the 350 grams of shabu and 2 ounces (28.35 grams) of “kush,” a high-grade variety of marijuana.

Inside his house which also doubled as a drug den, Cristobal showed the informant the drugs. But as the NBI agents barged inside, he escaped by breaking a window on the second floor, jumping on a nearby roof and fleeing toward C5 Road.

Eugenio told the police that they sold only marijuana and not shabu. This contradicted the NBI’s information that Cristobal and Eugenio had long been peddling shabu but started selling marijuana only last month.

According to NBI-SAU executive officer Kristine dela Cruz, they received reports that Cristobal’s drug supply was from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

Manuyo Uno chair Jimson Zaragosa, meanwhile, admitted that he did not know that the house in front of the barangay hall was being used as a drug den.

Fake change

“I was surprised because we thought Cristobal and Eugenio had changed their ways,” he told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

Both men surrendered to authorities under “Oplan Tokhang” last year, admitting they were marijuana users. Zaragosa said he had been monitoring them since then.

“Cristobal had put on weight. He was not as thin as before. I didn’t know he would return to using drugs and even selling them,” he said. “Maybe he just became a pusher recently.”

“I can’t see if they’re doing illegal activities because their windows are always closed,” he added although he admitted it was his first time to enter Cristobal’s house during the raid.

The NBI said residents had long been complaining about the drug den in their neighborhood, leading to the operation.