By JINKY TABOR
Authorities seized last Thursday night some 374 kilos of suspected shabu worth P2.6 billion from a man during a drug bust in Cavite.
Joint operatives of the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and Cavite police arrested Muad Romorus Abedin Mangotara in a house on Block 1, Lot 29, SomerSet 9 Village, Lancaster New City Subdivision, Barangay Navarro, General Trias City, Cavite.
The house is allegedly being used as a warehouse for illegal drugs.
In an interview, Mangotara, a resident of Marawi City, said he rented the house before the implementation of the community quarantine due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
He refused to divulge the identity of the alleged delivery man who left the illegal drugs in his car outside the house.
Authorities confiscated from the suspect 374 packs of suspected shabu weighing more or less 374 kilos with an estimated street value of P2,543,200,000 and the boodle money amounting to P1 million with two genuine P1,000 bills used as the buy-bust money.
The car, where the drug deal was consummated, was also seized, along with some personal belongings, including a driver’s license and a National Bureau of Investigation clearance under the name of Muad Romuros Abedin, which the suspect said is his real name.
Philippine National Police Region 4-A director Police Brig. Gen. Vicente Danao said the illegal drug might have been sent to the house before lockdown was implemented in Cavite and the suspect found it difficult to dispose.
Danao said they are looking into the possibility that the suspect is member of a syndicate given the large volume of the seized illegal drugs.
He said they are also trying to determine it is related to the suspects recently arrested in Bulacan where 756 kilos of shabu were confiscated.
The suspect is now under the custody of the PNP while a case for violating Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 is being readied against him.
