Anti-drug agents conducted a saturation drive Friday morning at the Mapayapa compound in Pasig City, a site of the infamous “shabu tiangge” as part of its intensified campaign against illegal drugs.

Pasig police chief Napoleon Villegas said about 50 agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) began rounding up residents of the compound at 5:30 a.m.

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The raiding team, according to Villegas, did not bother to secure a search warrant from the proper court before conducting the saturation drive.

But the police official said they welcomed PDEA's move, adding that they are one in the campaign against illegal drugs in the city.

PDEA spokesman Derrick Carreon said they had secured a search warrant prior to the operation.

“The operation was conducted by the agency's Metro Manila regional office, and had been properly coordinated with the police and the village officials,” Carreon said.

The Mapayapa compound was the site of a shabu flea market which was raided by the authorities in 2006 where at least 100 people were arrested and several grams of shabu were seized.

The drug market was operating right under the nose of the Pasig City Hall. It was raided again in June 2007.

Amin Imam Boratong, the alleged owner of the compound, was nabbed several months after the first raid. He is now detained at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) national office in Manila.

Anti-narcotics policemen also raided the area late last month and confiscated at least 300 grams of shabu and other drug paraphernalia.

Last Thursday, police confiscated about P2 million worth of the same illegal substance in another operation at the Royal Garden Villas subdivision in the city and arrested six drug peddlers. (AH/Sunnex)