149 rounded up in 'shabu tiangge' raid

BIÑAN, Laguna ,Philippines  – At least 149 people, including 83 drug users, were rounded up in a raid on a “shabu tiangge (flea market)” in Barangay San Antonio here before dawn yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz, Laguna police director, said 62 of those rounded up in the raid on 30 houses in Sitio Kabulusan and Garcia Subdivision were found to have pending arrest warrants for various crimes.

Cruz said the combined police team who carried out the raid as part of “Oplan Trojan War” was armed with 30 search warrants.

Seized during the raid were two caliber .38 revolvers, a shotgun, a 9-mm pistol, several sachets of shabu, drug paraphernalia, and several coins taken from houses operating fruit game machines.

Chief Inspector Vicente Cabatingan, special operations chief of the Laguna police, said the raid was carried out after a weeklong surveillance in Barangay San Antonio.  – With Arnell Ozaeta