Mandaluyong drug syndicate busted; 14 suspects arrested

Junnel Adriano—PHOTO COURTESY OF MANDALUYONG POLICE

A notorious drug syndicate in Mandaluyong City has been “70-percent destroyed” thanks to the cooperation of barangay officials and residents.

Senior Supt. Moises Villaceran, Mandaluyong police chief, said 14 members of Junnel Adriano drug group were arrested in a series of weeklong buy-busts in the city.

Latest to be arrested was Manuel Tumawas of Block 38, Sitaw Street in Welfareville Compound, Barangay Addition Hills, around 10 p.m. on Thursday.

In an interview on Thursday, Villaceran said the 39-year-old Tumawas was the right-hand man of Adriano’s group and also included as a drug pusher and user of the barangay’s drug watch list.

Police seized from Tumawas 17 sachets of crystal meth, or “shabu,” weighing 106 grams worth P531,000.

Villaceran said the drug stings were conducted after a netizen posted on Facebook last week a two-minute video of drug transactions led by Adriano and his group at Block 37 Avocado Street in Barangay Addition Hills.

The uploader even noted that “the drug sales were rampant, and even our narrow alleys were converted to cara y cruz gambling areas, with a barangay tanod volunteer even participating.”

Source of ‘shabu’

From April 7, antidrug personnel caught the other 13 members of Adriano’s group in separate drug busts in Barangays Addition Hills, San Jose and Barangka-Ibaba.

All arrested suspects admitted to police that the source of their shabu was Adriano, the police chief noted.

“The arrests were successfully carried out not only because of the information shared by the arrested drug suspects, but also because of the cooperation of barangay officials and residents,” Villaceran said.

“They would even text us, the police, that a drug transaction was already ongoing, so the suspects were caught in the act and arrests were swiftly made,” he added.

Adriano, however, remains at large.

“We will continue to find him,” Villaceran said.

The 30-year-old Adriano was arrested on June 12, 2017, for robbery but he was able to post bail.

He also had pending cases for theft and drug pushing. He was also listed as among the Top 10 wanted criminals in Mandaluyong City.