Three allege
d drug couriers were nabbed Monday by joint police forces led by the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) after they yielded P6.8 million worth of suspected crystal meth or shabu in a buy-bust operation in Manila.
Police Major General Guillermo Eleazar, NCRPO director, identified the suspects as Mark Anthony Alcantara alias Maki, Rudy Kidlat and Rona Valenzuela.
Elements of the NCRPO-Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU); Manila Police District (MPD) Police Station 6; and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-National Capital Region (NCR) apprehended the suspects who allegedly sold five packs of suspected shabu to an undercover anti-narcotics agent for P1 million.
The transaction occurred inside a red Suzuki vehicle used by the suspects on Osmena Road, Vito Cruz Avenue around 1:10 a.m., Eleazar said.
When the transaction was completed, the back-up team pounced on the suspects and searched the vehicle.
There, police found five more pieces of plastic packs containing 500 grams of illegal drugs which were contained in teabags with Chinese character markings similar to the drugs recovered in a separate police operation in Pateros last May 28.
“This was similar to the operation (in Pateros) where one and a half kilos of shabu were found in Chinese teabags,” Eleazar confirmed.
Based on the volume of packaging of drugs, Eleazar suspected that the couriers were distributing shabu to street-level pushers in Manila.
According to the Metro Manila police chief, the suspects had been under surveillance for one month before the operation was hatched.
Eleazar noted the suspects were possibly connected with a group of Chinese drug syndicate operating in Metro Manila and Cavite.
However, the suspects denied they were part of a drug syndicate.
Kidlat and Valenzuela, on the other hand, claimed they did not know there were drugs in the car.
Police have conducted a follow-up operation to determine the drug source of the suspects and other street-level pushers possibly connected with them.
The suspects were brought to the NCRPO-RDEU detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, where they will face charges for violation of Sections 5 (sale), 11 (possession) and 26 (conspiracy) of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. (Martin A. Sadongdong)
