An 18 year-old big-time drug pusher and his cohort were arrested in a buy-bust operation after selling four sachets of shabu to an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on July 24, 2011 along Misamis St., Sto. Cristo, Bago Bantay, Quezon City.
PDEA Director General Undersecretary Jose S. Gutierrez Jr. identified the suspects as Saber Hayatuddin and Abiya Uyag who yielded 20 grams of shabu worth P360,000.00. Also recovered from Hayatuddin were five Banco De Oro pass books bearing traces of big transactions as indicated in the deposits and withdrawals recorded in the bank documents. Gutierrez revealed that PDEA agents turned down a bribe offered by Hayatuddin and his relative amounting to P500,000.00 in exchange for the release of the suspect.
The arrest of Hayatuddin, according to Gutierrez, resulted from a series of surveillance operations conducted by PDEA agents after one taxi driver surrendered 1.9 kilos of shabu concealed in a black back-pack left by passengers in the compartment of his taxi on July 8, 2011.
Based on the sworn statement of the taxi driver whose identity was not disclosed for his personal safety, he was hired by a young man on or about nine o’clock in the evening on July 7, 2011 to transport small pieces of furniture and personal stuff.
The young man did not ride the taxi, however, his companions, two young women got in and requested the taxi driver to take them to a new apartment somewhere in Quezon City. After unloading their personal effects, the two women requested the taxi driver to take them to SM North Edsa.
It was hours later that the taxi driver discovered that a black back-pack was left in his compartment. Investigation disclosed that Hayatuddin is the same person who owned the black back-pack containing 1.9 kilos of shabu surrendered by the taxi driver. Raffy Rico/ Jimmy Camba
