200 ARRESTED IN RAID ON SHABU 'SUPERMART'

POLICE and anti-drug agents swooped down on at least 40 shanties used
as drug-sniffing dens in Barangay Palatiaw in Pasig City before noon
yesterday and arrested at least 200 suspected drug pushers and users,
many of them minors.

There were conflicting reports on the number of those arrested. Some
said there were 300. Others said 100. Radio reports said 50.

The suspects were either openly sniffing or selling shabu at Mapayapa
compound on Soriano Baltazar street when caught by operatives of the
PNP, the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force and the
Special Action Force.

The minors were taken to the Department of Social Welfare and
Development.

Money in various denominations, two caliber .45 pistols, a carbine and
a .38 caliber revolver were also confiscated.

PNP chief Arturo Lomibao said two kilos of shabu, a sack of shabu
paraphernalia and one-half sack of tooters were also seized.

He said the raid was conducted after a week of surveillance.

Lomibao said shabu was being sold openly as in a "talipapa."

"I am dismayed to say the least because this is right inside a
neighborhood... Ang dami daming tao doon at saka may nakalagay pa doon
na menu kung magkano yung shabu," Lomibao said.

Police said the shabu was being sold at P500 per gram.

The prices of the illegal drugs and "rent" for the use of the shanties
for pot sessions were even posted at the entrance of the compound.

The price for using a shanty was P10 for a single customer and P5 for
every additional user.

Lomibao said Eastern Police District director Chief Supt. Oscar
Valenzuela and Pasig police chief Senior Supt. Raul Z. Medina, and the
local anti-illegal drugs task force have a lot of explaining to do.

"If they cannot explain, then heads will roll... It is incomprehensible
for me that these things happen right in the middle of this area with
policemen around," Lomibao said.

Lomibao initially relieved Senior Insp. Salvador dela Cruz, commander
of Police Community Precinct 20, and seven of his men for failing to
detect the existence of a commercial drug den a few blocks away from
the precinct. -