Korean, Filipino nabbed in drug bust

A Korean and his Filipino companion were arrested Tuesday night following an anti-illegal drugs operation in Quezon City.

Police identified the suspects as Jeon Sang, 45, from Busan, South Korea, and residing in Mindanao Avenue, Quezon City, and Bobby Ortalla, 30, of Fairview, Quezon City.

At around 10 p.m., the Batasan Police Station reportedly received information from a concerned citizen that a certain "Koreano" and his companion were selling what were believed to be illegal drugs at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Villa Beatriz in Barangay Old Balara.

At around 11 p.m., drug enforcement operatives of the police station conducted a buy-bust against the "Koreano" and his companion. One operative posing as a buyer bought R500 worth of alleged shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) from the suspects. The operatives announced the bust and arrested Sang and Ortalla after the deal. Authorities seized nine plastic sachets containing suspected shabu and another plastic sachet of unidentified drugs from the suspects.

Batasan Police Station Superintendent Rossel Cejas told Manila Bulletin the illegal drugs, which weighed 15 grams, was worth about R100,000.

Cejas said Jeon, who has been in the country for the past four years, was a subject of an illegal drug personality report last year in Quezon City.

The recovered illegal drug paraphernalia was turned over to the Laboratory Service of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

The two suspects were locked up at the Batasan Police Station and will be charged of possession and selling of illegal drugs.