A total of 72 persons, including a 12-year-old boy, were arrested Wednesday night when police raided three drug dens in a Muslim compound in Quezon City.
Most of the arrested persons were still high on illegal drugs when they were collared by the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) during a “One Time, Big Time” operation along Lanao, Libyan and Mujahaydin Streets inside the Salaam Mosque Compound in Barangay Culiat around 6 p.m., according to police report.
They launched the operation after receiving reports about the presence of three “shabu tiangges” being operated by a notorious drug pusher in the area only identified as a certain alias “Bin Laden.”
In coordination with the tribe leaders inside the community, operatives of QCPD’s Talipapa Police Station (PS-3) raided the then “impenetrable” compound.
They arrested a total of 50 men and 17 women. The eldest of them is 53-year-old Rosario Pineda, of Barangay Old Balara.
Five male minors, aged 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17, were also found allegedly piling up for drug supply.
Police said a four-month-old pregnant woman was also nabbed in one of the drug dens.
QCPD also found out that only two of the 72 are residents of the compound. Most of them were frequent customers of the shabu tiangges coming from nearby barangays in Quezon City, and even Marikina, Caloocan and Parañaque cities.
Various drug paraphernalia were confiscated from the suspects’ pockets but only eight heat-sealed sachets of shabu were seized from the operation, police said.
The raiding team failed to find the alleged operator of the drug dens, who, they said, might have fled before the operation.
Police said nine of the arrested suspects will be charged with possession of illegal drugs, while the rest will face cases for visiting the drug dens, all in violation of RA 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. (Vanne Elaine P. Terrazola)