6 drug pushers nabbed in Quezon

LUCENA CITY–Six alleged crystal meth (shabu) dealers, two of them women, were arrested in a series of buy-bust operations in different parts of Quezon province since Monday until Wednesday.

Anti-illegal drug operatives confiscated a total of 49.22 grams worth P295,350 in the street market, Quezon police director Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento said.

In Lucena City, police led by Lucena police chief Supt. Vicente Cabatingan, arrested Paul Uy Sia, 37, newly identified member of Rex Coronado drug group, after he sold shabu to an undercover police in Barangay 1 Tuesday afternoon.

Sia yielded 12 pieces of plastic sachets containing a total of 40 grams of shabu inside his car.

Sia was tagged as one of the remaining major drug pushers in the city.

Another member of the same drug group, Emmanuel Ongozi, 37, was also collared in another drug operation in Barangay Ilayang Iyam early Tuesday evening.

Coronado remains at large and subject of a massive police manhunt.

In another operation inside a subdivision also in the same village, police arrested Analene Ferrer, 28, who is included in the police drug watch list.

In Sariaya town, a local drug enforcement unit busted alleged drug pusher Raymond Brendez, 31, in Barangay Sampaloc 1 also on Tuesday afternoon.

On early Wednesday, Sariaya police arrested Felomina Malabunga, 55, after authorities discovered three small plastic sachets of shabu inside the toolbox of her tricycle.

In Candelaria town on Monday, authorities arrested Allan Garcia, alleged notorious drug pusher, in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Masin Norte.

Authorities seized four plastic sachets of shabu weighing 5.9 grams and a digital weighing scale.

Police also confiscated a car believed being used by the suspect in his illegal drugs activities.

In a phone interview, Armamento explained that their continuous operations against street-level drug pushers aim to neutralize the remaining networks of peddlers by the busted local drug syndicates.

“We want to show the remaining drug pushers that we will continue to hunt and arrest them. It’s either they surrender and undergo our drug rehabilitation program or they get busted and imprisoned,” he said.