‘Big-time’ pushers nabbed in Caloocan

Following the Caloocan City government’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs, three suspected drug pushers, including the president of a homeowners association, were arrested in separate police operations on Wednesday.

Presenting the suspects on Thursday, Mayor Oscar Malapitan and Caloocan police chief, Senior Supt. Bartolome Bustamante, said the suspects were caught with the help of informants.

Teams led by Senior Insp. Bernard Pagaduan, chief of the  city police’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Division, arrested Abdul Azis, 20, and Alibair Macadato, 41, both residents of Phase 12 in Barangay 188, Tala.

Recovered from them were around 650 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” with a street value of P1.5 million and a blue book showing all their transactions from 2012 to 2016 totaling P50 million. “These are big-time drug traffickers,” Bustamante said.

The two men also yielded two firearms—.38-cal. and .45-cal. pistols.

Malapitan said that Phase 12 was notorious for illegal drugs as an operative from the National Bureau of Investigation was killed when they tried to infiltrate the area in 2013.

“This is the biggest operation we have done so far since I [started] my term last 2014,” Bustamante told the Inquirer.

Also on Wednesday, the police arrested Dario de Paz, president of the RecomVille Homeowners Association in a follow-up drug operation.

Earlier, authorities caught one of De Paz’s “regular” customers, Sherilyn Hermias, 31, on Diamante Street in Barangay 170. She yielded 0.5 grams of shabu in a plastic sachet while De Paz was found with around 10 grams.

Malapitan said the informants would be given rewards ranging from P10,000 to P100,000.