Tarlac family runs shabu trade

TARLAC CITY -- Shabu peddling, it appears, is this family's business.

Police are now hunting down members of a clan here after finding evidence that they have been allegedly engaging in big-time shabu trade in the city.

Tagged as the alleged leader of the family-run illegal drugs trade is one Antonio Tan, a resident of Sitio Suba in Barangay Matatalaib, whom police said may have links with a Filipino-Chinese woman in Manila who supplies the shabu.

Superintendent Tito Bayangos, city police chief, has informed Mayor Gelacio Manalang that his men have arrested two of Tan's children, Edgar and Danilo.

Arrested with them were Janet Nuqui-Tan, 37, Danilo's wife, who reportedly was forced to join the illegal drug trade due to her husband's involvement in the drug syndicate, and Mely Sulit, 41, a cousin of the Tan brothers.

Police said Janet admitted using shabu, while Sulit claimed that her cousin Edgar was the one who convinced her to join the drug syndicate. Sulit said her house was used as "stockroom" for the shabu coming from Manila.

The four suspects were cornered along with three others -- identified as Orlando Manuel, 41; Elias Bondoc, 26; and Agustin Ocampo, 38 -- while packing several grams of shabu in Edgar's house in Sitio Suba, Bayangos said.

The police raiding team also confiscated an improvised tooter, an alcohol lamp, pieces of aluminum foil and a weighing scale from Edgar's house.

Police alleged that Tan's four other children and four of their cousins, all residing in Barangay Matatalaib, were also involved in the illegal activities.

Bayangos said there are still five other members of the group who are also obviously related to the Tans.

Police tagged the family-run syndicate as one of the alleged biggest sources of illegal drugs, particularly shabu, in Tarlac City.

The illegal drugs, Bayangos said, are being delivered here at least twice a week. "Tan's group is equipped with sophisticated communication gadgets and high-powered firearms and has first class (means of) transportation," he said.