2 women nabbed in Quezon City, Caloocan cocaine buy-bust

MANILA, Philippines - A joint team of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents and police operatives yesterday nabbed a woman in the act of selling a kilo of cocaine for some P.5-million in a buy-bust operation along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.

Cocaine, which is not as popular as shabu in the country, is variously estimated to cost P5 million to P6 million a kilo in the street. The seized cocaine is believed part of the 1,500 kilos of cocaine dumped in the waters off Samar last year by a foreign sea vessel, on its way to Hongkong. Reports showed the ship was apprehended by authorities later in Hongkong minus the hot cargo. 

Superintendent Wilkins Villanueva of the CIDG Crame, who led the team, identified the suspect as Isabela “Delia” Placiente, 47, resident of Upper Nawasa, Park 4, Area 7, Barangay Commonwealth, Quezon City.

Intelligence Officer 2 Christopher Macairan of the PDEA-Metro Manila Regional Office said Placiente was nabbed in front of the Puregold supermarket in Barangay Commonwealth at around 1 p.m. yesterday.

Prior to the suspect’s arrest, Placiente agreed to sell a kilo of the illegal drug to a poseur buyer.

Placiente claimed a brother who is an inmate at the Quezon City Jail simply told her to get the package and sell it after a recent visit.

In related developments Northern Police District anti-narcotics agents seized around 1.5 kilos of suspected cocaine with an estimated street value of around P5 million during a drug bust yesterday in Caloocan City.

Chief Inspector Jay Agcaoili, NPD anti-narcotics division chief, said that suspect Liza Campoto, 28, a lady guard employed by the Kagitingan Investigation Security Agency Inc., was alone when arrested.

A team led by SPO1 Jonathan Taguba confiscated from Campoto two bricks of suspected cocaine wrapped in transparent plastic in front of a restaurant along Rizal Avenue Extension in Monumento at around 10:15 a.m. Campoto when asked by The STAR for comment about the police accusations refused to answer queries.

On Tuesday, NPD director Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao Jr. was informed that a certain “Liza” was about to deliver cocaine somewhere in the northern part of Metro Manila. Pagdilao directed Agcaoili to “amplify” their intelligence gathering against the suspect. At around 6:30 p.m. on the same day, the anti-narcotics cops were able to buy a sachet of suspected cocaine from a Liza along M. Naval street in Navotas City.

The suspect reportedly told a police undercover agent that she could bring him more than a kilo of cocaine for only P100,000. The cop bought the 1.59 grams from the suspect for only P500. Agcaoili said a gram of cocaine has a street value of around P5,000.