HK triad ‘member’ arrested

BATANGAS CITY — Southern Tagalog operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have arrested an alleged member of the Hong Kong triad whom former undercover agent Mary Ong alias Rosebud reportedly named in her Senate testimony.

Edward Villarta, the NBI’s Region 4 director, said Benson Chua, a native of Chin-Chiang, Fukien, China, was nabbed during a drug buy-bust in front of a fastfood outlet in Calamba, Laguna last May 10.

"If he (Chua) was the one whom Mary Ong identified in the Senate hearing, they can see him now at the Laguna provincial jail," Villarta said.

Ong reportedly told the Senate that an alleged drug pusher named Benson Chua was "unaccounted for" or missing.

Villarta said Chua acted as the "delivery man" of a certain Aphuku Go who had agreed to sell 400 grams of shabu valued at P250,000 to a poseur-buyer.

Chua was aboard an unlicensed Toyota Revo when NBI agents headed by Christopher Latayan arrested him.

In another development, Villarta said NBI agents in this province arrested one Giselo Catapang, an alleged notorious drug pusher, in his home in Taal town.