Thirty-two persons, including a 22-year-old criminology student, were arrested in anti-illegal drugs operation in Quezon City around past midnight yesterday.

Chief Supt. Joselito Esquivel Jr., Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director, identified the student as Markliford Masanay, a resident of Brgy. San Roque 1 in Quezon City.

Esquivel said Masanay was arrested in a buy-bust operation of Cubao policemen inside Room No. 415 of Walnut Hotel at the corner of Saint Mary and New York Streets.

Police confiscated 13 plastic sachets of suspected shabu and the buy-bust money from Masanay.

The 31 other persons were apprehended during separate operations of QCPD’s 11 Police Community Precincts (PCPs), Esquivel said.

Esquivel said Masanay and the 31 other drug personalities will be charged with violating Republic Act No. 9165, otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Supt. Giovanni Hycenth Calliao, Cubao police chief, said Masanay has previously surrendered to the authorities during the height of the so-called “Tokhang operation.”

Calliao said Masabay’s arrest was based on a tip given by a drug personality who was previously arrested by his men.

The big number of arrest was not new to QCPD but almost a daily routine.

Last July 10, Esquivel told reporters that QCPD members have apprehended 19 suspected drug dealers and users, including a barangay tanod identified as Arturo Albaniel of Barangay UP Campus.

Aside from the 45-year-old Albaniel, his elder brother Armando and eight others were also apprehended by the police while in the middle of a pot session inside the barangay tanod’s house at No. 58 Sto. Niño Street in Pook Dagohoy.

Esquivel vowed to be unrelenting in conducting anti-drug operations in his jurisdiction.