5 suspected drug pushers nabbed in Quezon

Packets of shabu. (PHOTO FROM PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE FILES)

LUCENA CITY – Five suspected village-based major drug pushers were arrested on Saturday and Sunday in police operations in Quezon province, police said.

Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police provincial director, said local police anti-drugs units in coordination with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) nabbed the suspects in buy-busts and raids in Lucena City, Tayabas City, Tiaong and Candelaria towns.

In Lucena, operatives led by Supt. Marlowe Torina, arrested Bernardo Palaganas after he sold two plastic sachets of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to an undercover policeman in Barangay Cotta on Sunday around 4:40 a.m. Police seized “shabu” weighing 4.5 grams worth P8,325 from Palaganas, who was tagged as one of major suppliers of illegal drugs to addicts in the village.

In Tiaong, police armed with search warrant swooped down on the house of Ronald Mangubat Dizon in Barangay Anastacia on Saturday and confiscated five sachets of shabu weighing 11.8 grams worth P21,240.

In neighboring Candelaria town, cops collared Mary Jane Pamatmat and Willy de Chavez, her associate, in another buy-bust operation on Saturday. The suspects yielded four sachets of “shabu” weighing 4.42 grams and worth P8,000.

Police said Pamatmat was number one on the list of drug personalities in Candelaria.

In Tayabas, policeman arrested Arvin Laguna in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Opias also on Saturday. The suspect, number one on the local drug watch list, was caught with six small sachets of “shabu” worth P1,200.  SFM