Former Philippine Basketball Association player Paul Alvarez was arrested during a supposed pot session in Quezon City on Saturday night.
Quezon City police Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar said the former basketball star “was caught using shabu with two others in a hidden den.”
Eleazar said policemen were about to serve an arrest warrant against Alvarez for an earlier case of slight physical injury when he got into a brawl in a bar on Timog Avenue in October last year.
But when the operatives entered the barbershop in Brgy. Sikatuna, they caught Alvarez red-handed sniffing shabu.
The police recovered five sachets of shabu worth P15,000, five aluminum foil strips with traces of shabu, and other drug paraphernalia from Alvarez and his two companions—Mohammad Dana, 29, and Ray Allan Cruz, 36.
The three suspects, who all tested positive for drug use, were charged with violations of Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.
Alvarez rose to fame in the PBA where he earned the moniker “Mr. Excitement” for his slam dunks and high-leaping moves.
Since he retired in 2005, he was involved in a string of cases such as mauling his live-in partner in Baguio City in April and beating up a taxi driver and a female television reporter in August 2007.