5 drug couriers fall in trap

BAGUIO CITY – Five drug couriers including a teener from Maguindanao fell into dragnets laid down by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Cordillera over the long weekend.

Senior Police Officer 4 Romeo Abordo, team leader of PDEA-Special Operations Group said the 17-year-old Maguindanaoan courier who boarded a Victory Liner bus from Cavite was caught at around 2:30 a.m. Monday. He yielded two heat sealed transparent sachets containing five-grams each of shabu. Abordo pegged the market value of the 10 grams to reach P100,000.

The PDEA official said that the 17-year-old was only asked by his brother to bring the shabu to Baguio City to sell it.

On Sunday night, four other drug pushers were caught during a buy-bust operation in lower Gibraltar,Pacdal in the city. Four small plastic sachets containing 0.40 grams of shabu pegged at P2,400 were seized.

Abordo named the drug pushers as Joel Balasio Fallorin, 31, from Tuding, Itogon town in  Benguet; Mary Jane Fernandez Espiritu,21, of Labrador town, Pangasinan; Jordan Luther Abuan Managdag, 23, of Puguis, La Trinidad town, Benguet  and Benjamin Gutierrez Abalos, 34, in Mabini street in Baguio City.

All were indicted for violating Section 5 (sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals) in relation to Section 26b (Attempt or Conspiracy) and Section 11 (Possession of Dangerous Drugs) of RA 9165 (The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002). 

Except for the 17-year-old Maguindanaoan who was temporarily handed over to the DSWD, all the drug pushers were detained at the Baguio City Jail.

A month ago, a supposed shabu tiangge was uncovered along Barangay Siapno here by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group –Cordillera and PDEA-CAR seizing shabu and other drug paraphernalia.