MABALACAT CITY -- The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency or PDEA has seized P158,700 worth of shabu in three separate buy bust operations where 10 suspects were arrested.
These apprehensions were made just a few days after an alleged courier with a P408 million cache of meth was nabbed in a gas station on the boundary of San Fernando got busted.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos told the media that this was the biggest haul so far in the administration of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., who vowed to carry on the war versus drugs.
The Mabalacat bust, as PDEA described, was "small fish" compared to what Abalos stressed authorities were out to catch, the big sharks.
In the Mabalacat bust in 5th St., Barangay Dapdap, Mabalacat City, some 12 grams of shabu amounting to P82,800 was seized along with the arrest of suspects in
buy bust operations launched by agents of PDEA Pampanga and PDEA Aurora this Friday afternoon (July 29).
The first operation took place at around 3:05 pm following the apprehension of six drug suspects identified as Marjun Duron y Lambating @Durog- male, 34; Ponciano Alcantara y Garcia @Wawi 43; Morris Mendoza y Mangalin 34; Ronald Sevilla y Villanueva - 22 ; Rose Ann Balani y Nanzon - 34; and Ryan Sevilla y Villanueva - male, 18.
The second buy-bust operation was made at around 4:00 p.m at Lubao St., of the same barangay resulting in the arrest of Edmond J. Garcia, male, 30 years old.Garcia yielded one gram of shabu amounting to P6,900.
The third operation resulted in the arrest of three individuals and confiscation of 10 grams of shabu amounting to P69,000 and assorted drug paraphernalia.
Cases for violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 are now being prepared against the suspects.
During the operation at a gas station along NLEX, Abalos warned that the market in Central Luzon is big and there are many users.
"But I tell you: You big fish, mag-ingat na kayo because we are going after you and we will stop you from destroying the lives of the youth, '' he said.