3 men yield P810,000 in meth at Bulacan COVID-19 quarantine checkpoint

CAMP GEN ALEJO S SANTOS, Bulacan—Three men were caught carrying P810,000-worth of shabu, or crystal meth, at a checkpoint along the Cagayan Valley Road in Guiguinto town on Sunday (April 26).

Julius Francisco, 39, Roy Aldrin Marcolita, 22, and Andres Marcolita, 49, tried to cross the quarantine checkpoint but were caught when they threw out a bag that turned out to be filled with meth when they failed to show papers that one of them was a health worker, according to Col. Rolando Geronimo, Guiguinto police chief.

Police at the checkpoint also recognized one of the men, Francisco, as a former drug detainee.

The three carried 135 grams of meth and face charges for drug possession and violating quarantine rules.

Earlier on Thursday (April 23) in the City of San Jose del Monte, police caught three wanted persons by pretending to be social workers distributing cash aid to poor families riding out the Luzon lockdown.

Among those captured were Arnel Telic, 42, who was served a warrant of arrest at home at the village of Bagong Buhay II for a frustrated murder case in 2006.

Marvin Camota, 33, of the village of San Rafael IV, has been wanted for frustrated homicide in 2006 and was arrested, too.

Also arrested in the same village for a 2017 frustrated homicide complaint was Regina Crisostomo, 29.

Police were having difficulty tracking down the three suspects, “but we realized that they could have been home because of the quarantine,” said Col. Gil Domingo, San Jose del Monte chief of police.

He said the police quizzed neighbors about the suspects’ whereabouts, pretending to be compiling data for the government’s special amelioration program (SAP).

Edited by TSB