'Most West Crame residents into drugs'

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency is “alarmed” over the spread of drug peddling and abuse in a barangay in San Juan City, a spokesman said yesterday.

Derrick Arnold Carreon, chief of PDEA’s public information office, said that based on information gathered by the agency, Barangay West Crame, located near the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police, is “severely affected” by drug-related activities.

“Majority of the residents are involved in either drug-peddling or drug use,” Carreon told The STAR in an interview.

PDEA agents busted a family-owned drug den last Wednesday and arrested Nelson Bellocillo, 54; Nelson Bellocillo Jr., 20; Marlon Nuñez, 20; and Johnson Conception.

Operatives recovered several sachets containing methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu and traces of shabu weighing more or less 0.5217 gram. The agency said the Bellocillos are “a father-and-son tandem” in drug peddling.

Major Ferdinand Marcelino, director of PDEA’s Special Enforcement Service and Interagency Counternarcotics Operations Network, said the operation was based on video footage of actual drug deals in the area.

According to the agency, the footage showed the drug den’s customers taking shabu even in the presence of children, who Carreon said are corrupted due to the severity of drug-peddling and abuse in the barangay.

Carreon also noted that during the operation last week, operatives found an 80-year-old resident still engaged in drug-peddling.

He also cited the case of Nuñez, a suspect in a drug-related killing. He reportedly stabbed a neighbor earlier this month. Nuñez later admitted committing the crime.

According to Carreon, the agency intends to use a “mutli-pronged approach” to address the drug problem in West Crame.

He said they would go beyond the usual apprehension of those involved in drug-related activities and also include information dissemination on the health and social implications of drug abuse among the residents.