2 men nabbed in QC buy-bust for selling marijuana bricks

MANILA, Philippines—Two men were arrested and nine bricks of marijuana were seized during a buy-bust operation in Quezon City Thursday night, the police said.

Sr. Insp. Roberto Razon of the Batasan police station identified the suspects as Peter Ablan Jr., 29, of Baguio City and Lorenzo Manuel, 47, of Gen. Tinio, Nueva Ecija.

The buy-bust was conducted at around 9 p.m. Thursday at a vacant lot along EDSA near Quezon Ave. in Barangay Philam—a day after police arrested three persons in a similar operation in Barangay Bagong Silangan.

Razon said anti-illegal drug agents bought a brick of marijuana worth P2,500 from the suspects while the rest of the bricks were found in a large cardboard box.

The seized dried marijuana leaves weighed nine kilos which, Razon said, had a street value of between P3,000 and P8,000 per kilo.

“It’s a follow-up to an earlier buy-bust we conducted on Aug. 31 in Barangay Bagong Silangan during which three were arrested,” Razon told reporters in a press conference Friday.

He said the Aug. 31 buy-bust was carried out after residents complained about the illegal drug activities in their area.

In fact, a security guard told a neighbor, who happened to be a policeman, of the drug trade in the jurisdiction of the Batasan police station.

Razon said that during interrogation, the suspects arrested in Bagong Silangan revealed the source of their marijuana.

Police were then able to set up the operation in Barangay Philam that led to the arrest of Ablan and Manuel.