NARCOTICS GROUP NABS 6 IN MARIJUANA TRADE

BAGUIO CITY: Six suspected persons, including two minors, were
arrested on Sunday by the Antinarcotics and Presidential Security
Group agents for transporting 21 kilos of marijuana at the back of the
presidential mansion.

Sr. Insp. John Paul Mencio, deputy chief of the Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said one of the suspects eluded arrest as
enforcers surrounded Outlook Drive where the buy-bust took place.

Arrested were Washington Pelitan, 35; Melgie Ebanues, 30; Estrella
Lobito, 40; and driver Anthony Aludos. Authorities withhold the names
of the two male minors, aged 17.

Mencio told reporters that the arrest came after one of the suspects
approached a PDEA informant asking him about a buyer of at least 200
kilos of marijuana bricks.

The informant said he knew of a potential buyer and agreed to do the
transaction on Wright Park with 20 kilos of marijuana bricks as
initial supply, but the buy-bust took place on Outlook Drive.

Mencio said that one of the older suspects could face serious offense
for instructing the minors as couriers by ordering them to load the
marijuana in a taxi in La Trinidad, Benguet, before it was transported
to Baguio.

One of the minors told The Times that he was unaware of the
transaction, saying that he was surprised that the sack was full of
marijuana bricks. Authorities would turn over the two minors to the
Department of Social Welfare and Development on court order.

The taxi driver, on the other hand, said he fetched the five suspects
in La Trinidad with an agreement they would pay him regular taxi-fare
rate.

Mencio said some of the arrested suspects were subjects of long-time
surveillance. He added that the PDEA would intensify its antiillegal
drugs operation, so that illegal drug pushers would be brought to face
the law.