Mother-daughter fall in drug bust

A mother and daughter and eight other suspected drug pushers were arrested in separate buy-bust operations over the weekend in Caloocan City and Navotas, police said yesterday.

Detained and charged for violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act were Arsenia Escano, 48; Roberto Narito, 37; Nilo Tubig, 41; Nerias Pulilan, 41; Danilo Basa, 40; Fernando Sebastian, 52; Eduardo Agustin, 56; Roberto Bernadero, 34, all residents of Barangay North Bay Boulevard South (NBBS), Navotas; and Herminia Guillermo, 42, and her daughter Maryann, 18, both of Caloocan City.

Caloocan City police Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) chief Senior Inspector Jose Valencia, said Guillermo and her daughter did not resist arrest when his men pounced on them at around 8:30 p.m. near their house on Masagana Compound, Barangay 73.

Valencia said the arrest of the mother and daughter was made after their neighbors tipped off the police. They yielded five sachets of shabu.

In at least four subsequent buy-busts, town police chief, Superintendent Roberto Villanueva, said the local Drug Enforcement Unit led by Inspector Danilo Padilla arrested the eight suspects.

Villanueva hailed the cooperation of concerned residents who reported the suspects’ illegal drug activities to the police, resulting in their arrest.

Police said local anti-narcotics agents conducted surveillance on the town’s biggest barangay, where a concentration of suspected criminal elements can be found, and conducted the drug bust.

Villanueva said the names and case numbers of those arrested will be posted in giant billboards put up in strategic places in the town. – Jerry Botial