Navotas pedicab driver yields 5 kilos of marijuana

MANILA, Philippines -  Police arrested a suspected drug courier for possession of five kilos of marijuana during a pre-dawn operation in Navotas City yesterday.

Navotas City police chief Senior Superintendent Florendo Quibuyen said that tricycle driver Richie Arcenas, 37, resident of Barangay Tangos, yielded five bricks of marijuana weighing a kilo each when arrested by his men at around 5 a.m.

Quibuyen said the station anti-illegal drugs unit, led by Chief Inspector Bartolome Tarnate with PO2 Ronnie Espinola, conducted an operation at the corner of C-4 Road and M. Naval street in Barangay Navotas East after a concerned citizen informed them of a delivery of an illegal drugs in the area. “We verified the information and it came out positive, which resulted in the arrest of Arcenas who yielded five kilos of marijuana,” Quibuyen told The STAR.

The cops easily identified the suspect, which according to an informant was driving a pedicab and was not wearing a shirt, in violation of a city ordinance. When the police checked the content of a box Arcenas was carrying, they found stacks of marijuana wrapped in newspaper.

According to Quibuyen five bricks of marijuana could only be bought for P10,000 to P20,000 but the price could fetch up to P100,000 when it reaches the street.

Arcenas, when asked for the source of the marijuana, pointed to a certain Darwin and Tess Garcia, both his relatives and residents of Barangay Tangos, as the ones who allegedly hired him to pick up the box on C-4 Road for P200.

“I badly need money to augment my income as tricycle driver for one of my five kids is ailing. I’m just a courier,” Arcenas said.

According to Quibuyen, Darwin and Tess are in the watch list of the Navotas Anti-Drug Abuse Council and were already arrested for drug offenses in the past and are both out of jail on bail. 

Quibuyen said that the local police’ fight against illegal drugs in Navotas has the full support of Mayor John Rey Tiangco, who offered the cops P10,000 reward for every pusher arrested and P2,000 for a user.

Tiangco hailed the Navotas police, saying, it was a job well done.