Courier falls as cops raid drug ‘repackaging center’

Authorities are looking at the possibility that Cainta town in Rizal province is being used as a “transient point” by a major drug syndicate which operates in eastern Metro Manila following the discovery of what a police official said was a “repackaging center” in an exclusive subdivision and the arrest of a suspected big-time drug courier on Monday night.

Senior Insp. Christopher Cabuguang, head of the Cainta police antidrugs unit, said that a search of the house being rented by Jesus Torres Jr. on Jaen Street, Vista Verde Executive Village, yielded an estimated P1 million worth of suspected methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” in addition to empty plastic containers found in a black box and two electronic weighing scales.

He noted that Torres could not be a drug supplier since no drug-making equipment was found in his house.

Torres also yielded P42,000 in cash, a voter’s ID card, an empty backpack and five sachets of shabu. He had been under surveillance for more than a month and was arrested in the area hours before the raid based on a tip from an informant.

According to Cabuguang, it was the first time a drug courier had been arrested in Cainta since he took office in January, raising the possibility that a drug syndicate was using the town as a “transient point.”

Before, authorities had arrested “only small-time drug pushers.”

“They were the ones who sold [drugs to informal settlers]. But this one, judging by his house, he also sells to rich boys,” he said.

He added that he did not believe that Torres acted alone and that his operations were confined to Cainta because of the “sheer amount of drugs” seized from his house.

“That’s too much [for one person to handle in such a small area],” he said. Cainta is the second smallest town in the province.

Cabuguang added that the idea of the town being used as a repackaging center by a big drug syndicate was “not farfetched” considering its strategic geographical location.

“(Cainta) is strategically located if you want to access Pasig and Marikina,” he said.