AGENTS of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested five individuals in a buy-bust operation in an alleged drug den at Purok Centro Santolan, Barangay Tres de Mayo, Digos City just before noon on Jan. 18.
Nephi Noli Dimaandal, the PDEA XI spokesperson, identified the target of the operation as John Eric Tacderan, 30, married, and a delivery boy.
During the operation, he said four drug den visitors, identified as Genevieve Castro, Armando Elesterio, Joemel Fabroa and Charles Bone Lagrama, were present and caught in the act of having a shabu session.
Tacderan was considered a provincial target in the drugs watchlist.
He was arrested after he alleged sold a big sachet of shabu to a poseur-buyer. The drugs weight more or less one gram with a street value of P15,000.
Accordingly, more or less 15 grams of suspected shabu, with an estimated street value of P225,000, were seized from the suspects by the joint elements of the PDEA Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental provincial offices, Davao del Sur Police Provincial Office Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit and Digos City Police Station.
Seized during the operation were six pieces of heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets with suspected shabu weighing more or less 14 grams, assorted drug paraphernalia, and the buy-bust money.
The suspects will be charged for violation of Section 5 (Sale of Dangerous Drugs) Section 6 (Maintenance of a Drug Den), Section 7 (Employees and Visitors of a Den), 13 (Possession of Dangerous Drugs During Parties, Social Gatherings or Meetings,) and Section 14 (Possession of Equipment, Instrument, Apparatus and Other Paraphernalia for Dangerous Drugs During Parties, Social Gatherings or Meetings), Article II of Republic Act 9165 or The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
