2 men busted in Lucena anti-illegal drugs operation

LUCENA CITY – Anti-illegal drugs operatives arrested two alleged major drug peddlers in a buy-bust operation early Tuesday in this city, a police official said.

Quezon police Chief Sr. Supt. Rhoderick Armamento said a composite team of police and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) caught Edgar Velarde and Reymar Padolina after allegedly selling an illegal drug to a police poseur-buyer around 12:20 a.m. in Barangay Gulang-Gulang.

According to authorities, the suspects yielded 11 plastic sachets of suspected “shabu” weighing 28 grams and estimated to have a street value of P51,800. Police also said they recovered the P1,000 marked money used in the buy-bust transaction.
Officials tagged the suspects as key suppliers of shabu to drug users in the village and nearby areas.

“Their illegal activities were tipped off to the authorities by our CMP (community mobilization program) members in the barangay,” Armamento noted.

Under the program, CMP members, who are mostly drug surrenderees, conduct constant monitoring against those who are suspected of being engaged in illegal activities in their area.
All the information they gathered would then be forwarded to the authorities for validation and case build-up by the police.                    /kga