25 nabbed, P4.2 million drugs seized in stings

MANILA, Philippines — At least 25 persons were arrested and P4.2 million worth of illegal drugs were confiscated in police operations in Metro Manila since Friday.

In Taguig City, Jayson Esguerra, 24, and Rodulf Dejos, 39, were arrested along M.L. Quezon street in Barangay San Miguel at around 10:30 p.m., according to Director Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office.

Eleazar said 525 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, with a street value of P3.5 million, and 150 tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Valium (diazepam), with a street value of P12,000, were seized from the two men.

Esguerra and Dejos get their shabu supply from a convicted murderer serving his sentence at the Metro Manila City Jail, Eleazar said, but refused to name the convinct pending further investigation.

“The supplier of shabu is a murder convict who, like other detainees, got to know and acquainted with other drug personalities in the jail and eventually he joined them in their illegal business,” he said.

Eleazar said Esguerra and Dejos operated in Taguig City, near the NCRPO headquarters, and Rizal province.

Back in business, back in jail

Meanwhile, a woman recently released from jail yielded P720,000 worth of high-grade marijuana in Quezon City yesterday morning.

Eunice Zurya, 27, was apprehended in front of a fastfood restaurant along Quirino Highway in Barangay Bagbag at around 7:30 a.m. after operatives bought P36,000 worth of kush, a high-grade variant of marijuana, and P14,000 worth of marijuana from her.

Two ziplock plastic bags containing 60 grams of kush marijuana, five kilos of marijuana in nine plastic wraps and marked money were recovered from the suspect. 

Probers said Zurya was released from detention in September after she entered into a plea bargain on drug charges. 

At least 22 other drug suspects were arrested in separate operations since Friday. – With Robertzon Ramirez, Romina Cabrera