PDEA, BOC nab woman for P16.9 million party drugs

MANILA, Philippines — A woman was arrested after she accepted a parcel containing 9,948 tablets of the party drug ecstasy valued at P16.9 million during a controlled delivery operation in Quezon City yesterday.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) spokesman Derrick Carreon said Elisha Mae Ilas was apprehended at the corner of BMA Avenue and Kaliraya street in Barangay Tatalon at around 3:45 p.m.

Carreon did not disclose the consignor and origin of the shipment.

Apart from PDEA, personnel of the Bureau of Customs and the Quezon City Police District also took part in the operation.

Drug, slay suspect caught

In Pasig City, Metro Manila’s fifth most wanted drug suspect and his companion were arrested on Thursday in a sting that yielded 50 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu valued at P340,000.

Jan Jan Tulagan, 30, and Dominick Cataran, 23, are being held on charges of drug trafficking, city police chief Col. Roman Arugay said in a report.

Tulagan is the subject of several arrest warrants issued by the Pasig regional trial court on charges of murder, frustrated murder, illegal possession of a firearm and three counts of homicide.

In Caloocan, student Timothy John Marquez, 23, was initially accosted by police officers for not wearing a face mask as he walked along Sampaguita street in Barangay 156 just before 4 a.m. yesterday.

Police allegedly found a kilo of marijuana with a street value of P120,000 on his person.

Also in Caloocan, John Paolo Mendoza, 31, and Marc James Ortega, 20, were arrested during a drug sting in Barangay 30 at around 1:40 a.m. Two packs of shabu weighing 55 grams valued at P374,000 were seized from the two men.

Police confiscated shabu worth P340,000 from Alice Lopez, 21, said to be a high-value target, after she reportedly sold P30,500 worth of shabu in a sting in Barangay 188. – Ghio Ong, Robertzon Ramirez