ORMOC CITY– Suspected shabu with a commercial value of P408,000 were seized from a couple during a buy-bust operation in this city on March 10.

Arrested inside their house in Barangay Concepcion were Mark Anthony Apas, 32, and his live-in partner, Jennifer Montureto, 28. Both were said to be on the drug watch list.

Lawyer Gil Pabilona, the regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said that the suspected shabu seized from the couple weighed 60 grams contained in five sachets and with a street value of P408,000.

Pabilona said that the main target of the 3:35 pm drug raid was Apas but during the operation, it was Montureto who handed the item to the operatives.

Apas, in an interview, disclosed that his addiction to shabu prompted him to indulge back to the illegal drugs after he was released from prison in 2019 for a drug offense.
Montureto maintained that she was only in the house to clean it.

Charges of violations of Secs. 5, 11, and 26 of Art. II of RA 9165 or the Comprehensive Law against Illegal Drugs of 2002 were charged against the suspects who are now detained at the police station of Naval.
(ROBERT DEJON)