Police yesterday seized P455.6-million worth of suspected shabu in a raid at the rented apartment of a woman in Las Piñas City.
She was allegedly the cohort of the Chinese national who yielded about P2.5 billion of suspected shabu in Makati City last week.
Authorities are now hunting Melanie Salem, who is the tenant of the apartment in Golden Acres Subdivision, Talon 5.
Salem was the live-in partner of Joel Bustamante, who admitted after he was arrested in a drug sting last Wednesday in Las Piñas that he was the drug courier of the Chinese, Liu Chao, police said.
Police Col. Segundo Lagundi Jr., Las Piñas police chief, said members of the Las Piñas police Special Weapons and Tactics and the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group raided Salem’s apartment after getting a tip last Friday from a friend of Police Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan, Philippine National Police deputy chief for operations.
“’Yung may-ari ng apartment, tumawag kay Gen. Cascolan. Eh, si Gen. Cascolan naman, tumawag sa amin,” Lagundi bared. “Kasi napanood niya na ‘yung nahuli na dalawang drug suspect noong Miyerkules. Eh yung isa doon, ‘yun din ang nakatira doon sa apartment niya,” he added.
After receiving the information, Lagundi immediately prepared his men, sought assistance from the PNP-DEG, and coordinated with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
“Prine-pare ko yung SWAT ko and then ‘yung drug enforcement group ng Crame,” he said. Lagundi said that members of his SWAT led the raid as explosive devices might be inside.
“Then, ‘yung clear na, sunud-sunod na kami pumasok,” the Las Pinas police chief said.
Seized during the raid around 5:15 a.m. were at least 64 packs of shabu – 59 of which were concealed in a Chinese tea packaging while five were still packed in its original, high-quality plastic – and weighing 67 kilos.
Lagundi said that according to the apartment’s owner, the suspect – who had been renting the house for two months – no longer returned following her live-in partner’s arrest. “Simula daw noong Wednesday, hindi na siya bumalik,” he said.
Salem’s live-in partner and Merwin Bustamante were arrested by police in a buy-bust operation on C-5 Extension in Barangay Manuyo. They yielded P115 million worth of shabu.
Lagundi said that they admitted to be the drug couriers of Chao, who was arrested last Tuesday after police raided his apartment in Makati City which stored several packages of suspected shabu allegedly for distribution.
“So far, tuloy tuloy ang operation. Kung may informant na makapag-tip,” he added. (Joseph Pedrajas with a report from Jean Fernando)
