7 pushers fall in police drug bust

Agents of the Northern Police District-Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Group arrested seven alleged drug pushers in a series of buy-bust operations over the weekend in Caloocan City.

Chief Inspector Rafael Santiago Jr., NPD-AID-SOG chief, identified the suspects as Armando Mariano, 44, of 104 Macabalo street; Marlon Yumang, 24, of 347 Marulas A, Raja Soliman street; Alex Cabalar, 42, of Kawal street, Purok 7, Dagat-Dagatan; Martin dela Cruz, 32, of 34 Malaya street; Rodolfo Rubio, 43, of Tuna corner Tawilis street, Block 6, Phase 3D, Dagat-Dagatan; Eduardo Trinidad, 53, of 29 Bisig ng Nayon street, all of Caloocan City, and Jeff Abdon, 21, of Area-F, Block 44, Barangay Gramados, GMA, Cavite.

A total of seven plastic sachets of shabu were seized from the suspects.

SPO4 Jorge Tabayag said the suspects were charged before the Caloocan City prosecutor’s office. Three of them — Mariano, Cabalar and Dela Cruz – were not allowed to post bail.

"This is a continuous drive and we are about to launch a much bigger offensive," Santiago said.

According to NPD director Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr., the district’s month-long intensified anti-narcotics crackdown had already netted at least 200 street pushers and users.

But Franco claims that the illegal drugs that proliferate in the northern metropolis are not from within the Camanava area, ordered his four police chiefs to map out within three months how illegal drugs, especially shabu, enter their respective turfs.

"They must know where these illegal drugs are coming from and how it managed to slip into their respective areas," Franco said.

Franco warned Caloocan officer-in-charge Superintendent Victor Ronquillo, Malabon City police chief Superintendent Pete Ramos, Superintendent Jose Marcelo of Valenzuela and Superintendent Billy Beltran of Navotas, to religiously do their assigned task.

"Or they will have trouble with me," Franco said. – Pete Laude