2 teenagers arrested for selling marijuana

Drug lords in the northern part of Metro Manila are now using minors in their illegal operation to avoid detection by the police. This was divulged after two teenage boys were arrested Saturday night for alleged selling of marijuana in their neighborhood in Malabon City.

Superintendent Gene Ines Abrajano, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Northern Field Office (CIDG-NFO) chief, said a 15-year-old suspect was apprehended while allegedly selling plastic sachets of marijuana also to young "clients" at about 8:30 p.m. at Phase 4, Barangay Tonsuya, Malabon City. Police seized from the suspect dried marijuana leaves packed in eight plastic sachets inside a transparent plastic box.

The boy’s alleged supplier, identified as Jun-Jun San Ramon, 18, also of Barangay Tonsuya, was immediately arrested with another eight plastic sachets of dried marijuana leaves in a follow-up operation conducted by the Civilian Volunteers Against Crime (CVAC) and the CIDG-NFO men led by agents Marlon Montezon, Rex Casinos and Jayvee Florendo.

Interviewed in their cell at the CIDG-NFO, the suspects readily admitted their crimes but San Ramon denied being the source of the confiscated marijuana.

He pointed to a certain Edgar Gaspar, an alleged big-time supplier of shabu and marijuana in the Navotas fish port complex, as his supplier.

"I’m just a henchman who distributes the ‘items’ to small-time street peddlers," San Ramon said.

According to San Ramon, marijuana street pushers could earn up to 40 percent of what they could sell while 60 percent goes to the supplier.

Many of the suspects’ clients are also minors, for marijuana is very affordable and could be obtained at only P20 per sachet, San Ramon said.

The 15-year-old suspect said that he sold his "items" mostly to young boys playing games at video shops that proliferate in their area. –Pete Laude