Two San Carlos City residents on board a Ceres Liner bus were arrested by the police at a checkpoint along the Escalante City highway last night for having about 90 grams of suspected shabu worth P270,000 in their possession.

Nabbed were Manguntabar Halem, 42, of Ilagan Street, and Umpa Abdul Malik of San Juan-Bonifacio streets, Barangay 5, all in San Carlos City.

They were intercepted by a combined team of the Escalante PNP and the 602nd Regional Mobile Group led by SPO3 Marvin Melleza and Inspect Joseph Cayat, respectively. Inspector Mateo Maguate, Escalante police chief, told the DAILY STAR that while they were conducting a checkpoint at about 7:20 last night, they flagged down a Ceres Liner bus from San Carlos City bound for Bacolod and requested all male passengers to disembark.

While inspecting the bus, the police noted two males who refused to disembark and when approached, they attempted to hide nine sachets of suspected shabu under their seats, Maguate said.

The two arrested suspects and the confiscated alleged shabu will be presented by Maguate to Senior Supt. Charles Calima, Negros Occidental police director, today.

Shabu sells at P3,000 per gram, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said.*GPB

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