3 ‘notorious’ pushers yield P54-M ‘shabu’ in Caloocan buy-bust

HARD WORK PAYS OFF PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde (left) and National Capital Region Police Office chief, Director Guillermo Eleazar, examine the P54 million worth of drugs seized from three men in Caloocan City on Monday. The operation was conducted following four months of surveillance on the suspects, said to be notorious drug dealers. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

After four months of surveillance, the police on Monday arrested three allegedly notorious drug dealers who yielded P54 million worth of “shabu” (crystal meth) in Caloocan City.

Nasrudin Mantikayan, Ibrahim Hassan and Ampal Pala were caught by antidrug operatives of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and Caloocan City police at the parking lot of a mall on Rizal Avenue.

The trio had sold P5,000 worth of illegal drugs to an undercover policeman in the lot where their white sedan, which held 8 kilos of shabu, was also parked.

Crime gang members

Chief Insp. Ferdinand Mendoza, head of the NCRPO Drug Enforcement Unit, said the arrested suspects were members of a criminal gang that operated in Metro Manila and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region.

They were placed under surveillance for four months after the NCRPO learned of their activities during a previous antidrug operation that had resulted in the seizure of 10 kilos of shabu.

The suspects, who hail from Zamboanga del Sur, Maguindanao and Cotabato, will be charged with violating Sections 5 and 11 of Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.