LEGAZPI CITY — Anti-drug operatives arrested five suspected drug pushers and seized 144 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” with a street value of PHP864,000 in a “one-time, big-time operation” conducted here Wednesday.
Arrested by virtue of a warrant during a raid in their respective houses in Victory Village were Ricky Trifulca, Butch Espineda, Arturo Romero, Gina Cipres, and Fe Guinto, spokesperson of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s (PDEA) office in Bicol, Cotton Yuzon, said in an interview Thursday.
Gina and Guinto’s spouses, Norman Cipres and Noli Cipres, respectively, were able to elude arrest.
Guinto is the treasurer of the barangay (village).
Found in the possession of Trifulca were 20 grams of shabu; Espineda, 12 grams; Romero, 43 grams; Guinto, 35 grams; and Gina Cipre, 43 grams.
The five were brought to the PDEA jail facility as charges are being prepared against them.
PDEA regional director, Christian Frivaldo, said that during their Wednesday operation, some drug surrenderers and bystanders in the village were invited to the barangay hall and were subjected by PDEA chemists to a drug test.
“At least 17 of them were positive while the results of the others’ tests are still being verified,” he said.
Frivaldo also thanked their counterpart agencies for helping them in the operation, and vowed to continue such “one-time, big-time” operations.
Also present during the operation were Legazpi Mayor Noel Rosal; director of the regional interior office Elouisa Pastor; and some chieftains from nearby villages who showed their support and lauded the joint operation of the agencies involved. (PNA)
