Drug busts snag Taiwanese duo, Nigerian trader, 2 ‘decent’ Pinoys

TWO TAIWANESE nationals on a drug delivery run were caught by a joint team composed of policemen and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives in Parañaque City on Tuesday.

A report from the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group said that Shion Ming Tseng, 33, and Zhen Kai Huang, 25, yielded 39 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” valued at P195 million.

The pair was arrested at 1:30 p.m. in front of a hotel on Macapagal Boulevard while they were on their way to deliver the drugs to a contact in Cavite province, PDEA Director General Arturo Cacdac said in a radio interview.

Earlier in the day, the police arrested two “well-dressed, decent-looking” individuals who turned out to be drug dealers supplying ecstasy pills to “party- and concert-goers” on Timog Avenue, Quezon City.

“Both were fair-skinned. They looked decent. They were people you would not suspect of being in the drug business,” said Chief Insp. Robert Razon, head of the National Capital Region Police Office’s Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Group (NCRPO-RAIDSOTG).

Neil Beltran Songco, 47, and Lilia Licuanan Ong, 62, were arrested at 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday as they handed over 10 ecstasy pills to an undercover policeman in front of a bar on Timog Avenue.

The two “high-value” targets were arrested after two weeks of surveillance based on an informant’s tip.

A report to NCRPO head Director Joel Pagdilao said that on top of the 10 ecstasy pills worth P1,500 each, the two suspects also yielded 55 more of the “twin hearts” variety. These were packed in plastic sachets in “groups of three, four or five.”

All in all, Razon said the 65 ecstasy pills seized from the suspects had a street value of P97,500.

“So it appears that apart from us, other people were going to buy drugs from them that time,” he added.

According to him, they were still checking if Songco and Ong had criminal records. Their informant, however, told them that the two had been selling ecstasy to concert- and partygoers on Timog Avenue. Authorities are still trying to determine where they get their supply.

Razon said that charges of violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act were set to be filed against Songco and Ong, now detained at the NCRPO headquarters in Taguig City.

In Caloocan City, a 34-year-old Nigerian national was caught with four sachets containing shabu.

Didicus Ohaeri, a businessman from Las Piñas City married to a Filipino woman, was arrested by antidrug operatives from the Northern Police District on MacArthur Highway around 6 p.m. on Monday.

SPO2 Fidel Cabinta said that based on a tip, they apprehended Ohaeri after he came out of a massage parlor and found the drugs in the bag he was carrying.

Ohaeri, who claimed to be a masters student, tested negative for illegal drugs. With reports from Jodee A. Agoncillo and Jhena Sy