MANILA – Police apprehended an alleged drug courier and seized an estimated PHP 2.2 million worth of illegal drugs in an operation in Quezon City on Tuesday night.
In a statement Wednesday, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Director Col. Melecio Buslig Jr., identified the suspect as 29-year-old Lemuel Lucero, a resident of Pasay City, who was collared in a buy-bust along Commonwealth Avenue in Barangay Batasan Hills shortly before 7 p.m.
During the transaction, a police officer posed as a buyer and bought PHP 48, 000 worth of shabu from the suspect. Upon receiving the pre-arranged signal, the suspect was immediately arrested.
Confiscated from Lucero were 300 grams of suspected shabu with an estimated street value of PHP2.04 million, 140 grams of kush (high-grade marijuana) worth PHP 210, 000, a cellular phone, a black sling bag, and buy-bust money.
The suspect will be charged with violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
In a related development, PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) chief Brig. Gen. Eleazar Matta said a 34-year-old Filipino woman was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City after being caught carrying kush.
Matta said the operation took place at the Customs International Arrival Area inside the airport at about 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The suspect arrived from Bangkok, Thailand and was found possessing two vacuum-sealed plastic packs containing dried leaves, suspected to be kush.
The contraband was concealed inside a plastic marble pot and weighed approximately 1.1 kg. with an estimated street value of PHP 1.54 million.
The seized drug evidence was inventoried, marked, and photographed and immediately submitted to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Laboratory Service for laboratory analysis.
The operation was part of the efforts of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport – Interagency Drug Interdiction Task Group, of which the PDEG is a member agency. (PNA)