PDEA tags Dagupan, Urdaneta as drug hubs
DAGUPAN continues to be an area of concern for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as it remains a transshipment point of illegal drugs for Northern Luzon.
PDEA regional director Roybel Sanchez made this statement as he presented two women drug couriers who were arrested by PDEA agents Tuesday evening in Barangay Lucao.
Sanchez said aside from Dagupan, Urdaneta City is also considered an area of concern as it likewise serves as a drop-off point of illegal drugs from Metro Manila, Bulacan and Cavite.
Dagupan is a major commercial center of Pangasinan while Urdaneta is strategically located along the national highway on the eastern side of the province.
The arrested couriers were identified as Emily Fernandez, 48, and Kim Gama, 22, both of Pasay City who were nabbed in front of a food chain carrying two plastic bundles of shabu weighing some 100 kilograms with street value of P500,000.
Shabu is reportedly sold at as much as P6,000 per gram in Dagupan and elsewhere in the country.
Sanchez presented the two suspects to Dagupan Mayor Benjamin Lim during a press conference at City Hall Wednesday afternoon.
Sanchez said it was the biggest drug bust ever scored by PDEA in Pangasinan and Region 1 in recent years.
Sanchez said the two women were to deliver the illegal drugs to a still unidentified buyer in Dagupan City who did not appear at the appointed place and time in Lucao.
During the interrogation, suspect Fernandez admitted that she was paid P25,000 by someone in Manila whom she did not identify, to deliver the illegal drugs to a certain buyer in Dagupan City and had asked Gama to accompany her.
FOLLOW-UP
Sanchez said a follow-up operation of the case is ongoing.
Meanwhile, Lim said the arrest is a big boost to the city’s anti-illegal drugs campaign launched in June this year that has netted 12 drug pushers and dealers.
The operation, however, was carried out solely by PDEA agents who had placed the two suspects under surveillance and did not involve element of the Dagupan police.
In a related development, Sanchez announced that PDEA will hold a workshop in La Union, along with members of the intelligence community to validate and re-validate the list of persons placed under the drug watch list in Dagupan and Pangasinan.
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