Quiapo drug bust ends in shootout: 4 suspects dead

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Four suspected drug pushers were killed in a buy-bust operation that turned into a bloody encounter in Quiapo, Manila on Friday afternoon.

The shootout happened after operatives from the Sta. Cruz Police Station 3 conducted an anti-drug operation at around 2:20 p.m. along C. Palanca St. corner Quezon Blvd. in Quiapo, Manila.

According to a spot report, the police were conducting a buy-bust operation when the suspects—identified as Ariel Buenaventura, Ryan Diwata, Arnold Concido, and a certain alias Dos—sensed they were dealing with undercover agents and retaliated with gunshots.

A report from an ABS-CBN news said that during the Quiapo anti-drug sting, a policeman was shot in the chest but was saved by a bullet-proof vest he was wearing.

The suspects were immediately brought to Jose Reyes Hospital in Sta. Cruz but were declared dead on arrival.

Police investigators recovered four revolvers, the buy-bust money, and sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu at the crime scene. /jpv