Cop nabbed for selling drugs to students

A policeman suspected of being behind the proliferation of illegal drugs at the University Belt in downtown Manila was arrested in a buy-bust operation Friday evening.

Police Officer 2 Celmar Albania, formerly assigned at the Caloocan police station and later transferred to the Regional Intelligence Office in Iloilo province, has been the subject of at least a week-long surveillance by the station anti-illegal drugs (SAID) operatives, led by Inspector John Guiagui, according to Sta. Cruz police station chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula.

“We have received intelligence reports that an AWOL (absent without official leave) policeman is involved in the selling and distribution of illegal drugs among students in the University Belt, which includes San Sebastian College, National Teachers College and Manuel L. Quezon University,” Sapitula said.

An informant told Sapitula that he would meet Albania for a drug deal in front of the San Sebastian Church.

Albania was arrested while in the act of handing one sachet of shabu to the informant. Seized from him were P1,000 in marked money and another two sachets of shabu. — Nestor Etolle