Authorities on Sunday seized more than P42 million worth of suspected illegal drugs and arrested eight suspects, including a Chinese national, in three separate operations in Quezon City and Malabon, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said Monday.
The agency said the first buy-bust launched with the Quezon City Police District took place beside a gasoline station on Mindanao Avenue, in Barangay Bagong Pag-Asa, around 1:45 a.m. Sunday and resulted in the arrest of three drug suspects: Datu Boy Nasser, Norhana Nasser, and Said Ampakay.
Seized from them were two transparent plastic packs containing suspected shabu worth P6.8 million, buy-bust money and a Mitsubishi Montero.
In a follow-up operation around 8 a.m. in Barangay San Bartolome in Novaliches, police arrested the suspects' alleged suppliers—Kenneth Maclan, Dennis Roque, Harold Villasana and Carlito Biglang-awa—and seized shabu worth P8.84 million, drug materials, firearms and explosives.
A Chinese national, Tuan Xi Yuan, was arrested in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Dampalit, Malabon City. She yielded P27.2 million worth of shabu, a mobile phone and buy-bust money.
Meanwhile, Customs agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport intercepted a smuggled shipment of kush marijuana worth P3.1 million at the Central Mail Exchange Center in Pasay City.
The shipment from California was falsely declared as “Chocolate, Green Tea, Shirts, Black Tea,” but when Customs examiners checked the parcel they found four packs of kush marijuana.
The authorities refused to identify the owner of the shipment, but they said the package was consigned to a person living in Marikina City.
Kush marijuana is still considered illegal in the Philippines, and its importation is punishable by life imprisonment.
The seized shipment was turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency at the NAIA Customs House in Pasay City for further profiling and case buildup.
In January, Customs-NAIA agents seized a shipment of kush weeds and liquid marijuana worth P200,000, and also at CMEC. The shipment was falsely declared as “one pair of shoes and chocolate” and also came from California.