Mabalacat: Drug City

WHAT’S WITH Mabalacat City lately

Nothing much…except drugs, drugs, and more drugs most apparently.

P6.2-M party drugs seized in Mabalacat City

A parcel from Germany containing 3,100 pieces of Ecstasy pills worth P6.2 million was seized Thursday afternoon by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Region 3 at the Mabalacat City Post Office. Punto!, ABS-CBN -- March 19, 2021.

PDEA, PNP dismantle drug den in Mabalacat

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Mabalacat City Police Station conducted a drug-bust operation that led to the dismantling of a drug den in Barangay Dapdap here.

The joint operation conducted by the two law enforcement agencies also resulted in the apprehension of five suspects…. all residents of Riverside 5th St., PH-1 MRC of the said barangay.

The authorities confiscated nine sachets of suspected shabu that weighed around 15 grams with a street value of P102,000.  Manila Standard, tribune.net.ph -- March 14, 2021

P408-K shabu seized; 2 drug suspects nabbed in drug bust

Two suspected drug peddlers were arrested by authorities, and P408,000 worth of illegal drugs were seized during an anti-illegal drug operation in Mabalacat City. Based on the report to Brig. Gen. Valeriano T. De Leon, PRO3 regional director, drug suspects…were arrested by joint elements of PDEU, Pampanga PPO, PIU, and Mabalacat SDEU at Barangay Mawaque Maragul, Mabalacat City. Ronda Balita Online – March 7, 2021

Drug dealer killed, 2 others nabbed in buy-busts

A suspected drug dealer was killed while two others were arrested in two buy-bust operations in Mabalacat City.

Pampanga police director Police Col. Thomas Ibay said Sputnik Gang member…and his cohort…, both included in the police list of drug personalities, were nabbed in an entrapment operation on Roxas St. in Barangay Dau.

Seized from them were four plastic sachets with four grams of suspected shabu valued at P27,200, the marked money, a body bag, and a .38 revolver with ammunition.

In another buy-bust in Barangay Dapdap, police killed a certain “Vinvin” when he allegedly shot it out with police operatives…

Police recovered from the slain suspect a .45 pistol with magazine, six grams of suspected shabu with a street value of P40,800, and the marked money used in the operation. – Manila Bulletin – February 21, 2021

Drug peddler yields P2.7-M shabu in buy-bust

At least P2.7-million worth of shabu was seized from a suspected drug peddler who was arrested in Mabalacat City on Tuesday.

Brig. Gen. Valeriano T. de Leon, regional director of Police Regional Office-3 said the arrested drug suspect…is in the database of illegal drug personalities.

De Leon said the suspect was arrested by operatives of Mabalacat City Police Station in a buy-bust operation along MacArthur Highway in Barangay Tabun of the said city.

Confiscated from suspect were nine pieces of heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets containing shabu, weighing some 400 grams with an estimated street value of P2,720,000, the marked money, a digital weighing scale, and a Toyota Corolla vehicle with plate no. TLE 296. – Philippine News Agency -- February 3, 2021

P435-K shabu seized in Mabalacat City

More than P400,000 worth of suspected shabu were seized from two alleged drug peddlers during separate buy-busts last January 20 in Mabalacat City.

…[O]peratives of the Mabalacat City police conducted a buy-bust along Saguin St., Dau Checkpoint, Barangay Dau resulting to the arrest of …

Confiscated from the suspect were four heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets containing suspected shabu weighing approximately four grams with an estimated street value of P27,200. 

During interrogation, suspect revealed [identity] of his cohort prompting authorities to conduct a follow-up operation near the PLDT Tower in Barangay Camachiles, Mabalacat City.

Arrested was …of Barangay Dau. Seized from him were four pieces heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets containing suspected shabu with an approximate weight of 60 grams and estimated street value of P408,000. People’s Journal – January 22, 2021

Mabalacat City yielding a haul of over P10 million in drugs in less than three months – and that’s only what has been reported in mainstream media. Just the major hits that passed the muster of public interest. How much more kaya with the misses – like the proverbial big fishes that always manage to get away?

Don’t look now but we veteran police reporters have this sense that Mabalacat City has reclaimed its title of being the “Drug Capital of Pampanga,” maybe even Central Luzon, that it so infamously held in the 1990s and 2000s.

Yeah, those years when Roxas District in Dau was no man’s land that law enforcers feared to tread.

Yeah, those years when Jopilan Street in Agusu was “scoring avenue” of shabu. The street name taking after the transactional “Jo, pilan?” for the number of sachets a druggie wished to buy there.

Yay, did I just hear someone say Mabalacat is not only a drug destination. Drug is the city’s very destiny? Wow, heavy, man, heavy.