Police seized an estimated P54.4 million worth of shabu and arrested three suspects in a buy-bust operation in Caloocan City on Monday.
National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar said police from the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit arrested the suspects Nasrudin Mantikayan alias “Buts” and two others, Ibrahim Hassan and Ampal Pala, while in the act of selling two kilos of shabu worth P5 million to an undercover police agent who acted as buyer at 10:30 am at the parking lot of Victory Mall, 12th Avenue, Grace Park.
Police also seized eight big zip lock bags containing around 1 kilo of shabu each, several deposit slips indicating remittance of the proceeds from the sale of shabu and a white Mitsubishi four-door Sedan with conduction sticker BO K659, used in the delivery of the drugs.
He said the buy-bust operation was an offshoot of a series of anti-drug operations that resulted in the seizure of 10 kilos of shabu.
The suspects are residents of Zamboanga del Sur, Maguindanao and Cotabato, and are operating in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) and Metro Manila.
Eleazar said they were the subject of four-month intensive and continuous surveillance operations.
“They belong to a Muslim group whom we are watching. However, we will locate the source of this and then trace it to other groups which they used to operate. They were from Cotabato and they have bosses from Cotabato who will be the subject of our follow-up operation,” Eleazar told reporters.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde commended the NCRPO for the successful operation.
The suspects will be charged with violation of selling dangerous drugs.
Meanwhile, Albayalde said the five active police officials tagged as involved in illegal drug activities are now under the custody of the Philippine National Police.
In a press briefing on Monday, Albayalde said Senior Supt. Leonardo Suan, Supt. Lorenzo Bacia, Insp.
Lito Pirote, Insp. Conrado Caragdag and SPO4 Alejandro Gerardo Liwanag were summoned to Camp Crame to face an investigation into the allegations against them.
The names of the five police officials, along with dismissed Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto, appeared in a drug matrix made public by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The administrative cases that may be slapped against the five active policemen have a maximum penalty of dismissal from the service and forfeiture of retirement benefits.
Albayalde admitted that they have not received any report about the six policemen in the drug matrix when they were still in the anti-illegal drugs unit of the PNP.
He said they only learned of their alleged involvement during the congressional investigation into the smuggling of shabu.
“We had no information on them before. But the President has his sources,” Albayalde said.
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