Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Wednesday rescued 12 minors, including a four-year-old child, being used as “runners” and “drug den “maintainers” in an anti-illegal drug operation in a slum area in Navotas.
The children admitted using shabu, PDEA director general Aaron Aquino said.
Sixteen adults were arrested, he said.
Some 44 sachets of supposed shabu were confiscated.
“There are 16 adults who were arrested and 12 children were [also] in that area,” Aquino told a dzBB radio interview, aired nationwide.
“The minors were from four years old to 15 years old,” he said.
A suspected drug supplier known by an alias of “Negro” was nabbed during the raid.
He expressed alarm over the drug operation in the area, saying the children were being used as “runners” or couriers of the illegal drugs.
“We found out that these minors are the ones being used as pushers,” he said.
“What is cruel here is that these children were the ones maintaining the drug den[s],” he said.
At least three drug dens were discovered in the area.
Aquino said the children sold drugs within the Navotas fish port area.
“They admitted using shabu when they would have clients. They used drugs while their clients were having a pot session,” he added.