P2.8M ‘meth’ seized, 2 drug traffickers fall in Lucena bust

LUCENA CITY –– About P2.8 million worth of shabu (crystal meth) was seized from two big-time drug traffickers in a buy-bust operation in this city before midnight Tuesday, police said.

Combined anti-illegal drugs operatives from Lucena and Quezon police arrested Mary Jane Pamatmat, 30, and Niel Carlo Tolentino, 24, after they sold P20,000 worth of shabu to a police agent in Barangay Ibabang Dupay around 11 p.m., Lieutenant Colonel Romulo Albacea, Lucena police chief, said in a report.

Authorities found the suspects with six plastic sachets containing 425 grams of shabu with an estimated Dangerous Drugs Board value of P2,890,000.

Police tagged Pamatmat as a newly identified “high-value target” in the local drug war campaign.

Investigators were conducting further investigation to determine the source of their shabu.

Information from concerned citizens, reformed drug users, and police intensive surveillance operations led to the arrest of the suspects, Albacea revealed.

Last week, Colonel Audie Madrideo, Quezon police director, disclosed that Quezon province was now the point of distribution of illegal drugs.

Madrideo said there were no more Quezon-based drug syndicates.

“What we’re battling now are drug traffickers from the outside who bring in shabu for distribution to local pushers and neighboring areas,” Madrideo told newsmen in a press conference last Friday.

He said the illegal drugs were being transported to Quezon from different places in Metro Manila aboard public utility transports, particularly commuter vans.

Edited by Lzb