P125-K shabu seized in condo near Taguig barangay hall

Sangki Makakua Jr., 58, and his wife Johaira Mayo, 51, were arrested with their helper Maricel Constantino, in a buy-bust operation early on Tuesday, May 1, in Maharlika Condominium, which is just across the barangay hall of Maharlika Village in Taguig City. PHOTOS FROM SOUTHERN POLICE DISTRICT

Packs of shabu worth P125,000 were seized from a couple and their helper in a condominium unit just across a barangay hall in Taguig City early on Tuesday.

The Southern Police District – District Drug Enforcement Unit (SPD-DDEU) arrested Sangki Makakua Jr., 58, and his wife Johaira Mayo, 51, during a buy-bust operation at Unit 207, Building 5 of Maharlika Condominium around 6 a.m.

Maharlika Condominium, a midrise housing for Muslim communities, is just 20 meters across the barangay hall of Maharlika Village on Pangan Pangandaman Jr. Street.

During the operation, police recovered three sachets of crystal meth, or shabu, a digital weighing scale and a 9-mm Armscor pistol loaded with 10 ammunition, said Chief Insp. Jerry Amindalan.

At one point, Amindalan said, Mayo “pretended to cry then threw her malong (tube skirt) out of the window.”

Operatives, however, recovered the cloth and found out that a 20-gram pack of shabu was covered inside. The total drug haul was estimated to be P125,000.

Amindalan said the couple admitted selling to drugs to “all people wherever they come from.”

Guns, weighing scale and crystal meth (shabu) worth P125,000 were seized during a drug operation in a condominium across the barangay hall of Maharlika Village in Taguig City on Tuesday, May 1.

Among their former customers was actor Julio Diaz, who was also arrested in a drug operation in Meycauayan, Bulacan last week.

The police official said neighbors of the couple told them they did not know that there were illegal drug activities inside the condominium.

The barangay led by Baisittee Pangandaman said they already issued a warning to the couple.

Pangandaman, during the early days of Oplan Tokhang, told those involved in illegal drugs to submit themselves or leave the community, where residents are mostly Muslim.

The couple were charged with illegal drug pushing and possession, aside from the illegal possession of firearms in relation to the election gun ban charges against Makakua.

They were detained at Taguig police station, along with their helper Maricel Constantino, 38, who was charged with conspiracy to commit drug pushing. /je