P4-M shabu, guns seized in QC stings

Five alleged drug dealers and gunrunners were arrested in two consecutive busts in Quezon City before dawn yesterday.

Police confiscated P4 million worth of shabu and several firearms.

Ricky Tuballa, 49, was arrested in front of a supermarket along Gen. Luis street in Barangay Nova Proper at around 4:30 a.m.

Tuballa is said to be a drug supplier to the Asero group, which was disbanded after its leader, Narciso Asero, and four others were killed in an alleged shootout with police in July last year.

He yielded four sachets said to contain shabu, drug paraphernalia and a loaded .38 caliber revolver.

Another sting staged less than three hours later led to the arrest of Tuballa’s supposed supplier, identified as Emmanuel Salamatin, 42.

Salamatin was arrested with three others – Michael Luna, 39; Melanio Cruz Jr., 63; and Jemasobel Uy, 24 –at Green Fields 1 Subdivision in Barangay San Agustin.

A ziplock bag containing around half a kilo of shabu was found in Salamatin’s bag.

Another 38 sachets containing suspected shabu, a loaded homemade .22 caliber submachine gun, two 9mm Armscor pistols, a homemade 9mm subcompact revolver, a .45 caliber pistol, bullets, drug paraphernalia and P20,000 in marked money were seized from the suspects.

Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar, Quezon City Police District director, said they believe the group is connected to a Chinese drug convict but did not provide further details.

The group allegedly operated in Novaliches and the nearby province of Bulacan.