Big scale drug dealing transpires within its closed-circuit video-secure walls.

Despicable deeds Citizens outraged over the operations of the alleged “drug queen” and irregularities in the penal system make their voice heard at the Senate. BOB DUNGO JR.

A multiple-story building towers over the other houses along Prudencio Street in Barangay 484, Zone 48 in Sampaloc, Manila. It is where Guia Gomez-Castro lives and conducts her business.

Gomez-Castro has interests in hardware, operates a large format printing machine, a junk shop and several apartments that offer residential and commercial spaces.

But Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director general Aaron Aquino believes there are more activities happening in each of the five floors that make up the heavily-secured building.

Aquino, citing several surveillance operations dating back to earlier than Gomez-Castro’s first arrest for selling illegal drugs in 2001, believes big scale drug dealing transpires within its closed-circuit video-secure walls.

He admitted to difficulties penetrating those walls.

“She had a snitch each time the PDEA, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the PNP (Philippine National Police) had planned raids on her place,” Aquino said. “We have never reached the first base of our operations, and they were prepared for us.”

Such was the extent of Gomez-Castro’s reach, he said.

She allegedly had in her pockets the so-called “ninja cops,” the police officers who allegedly stole from the bulk of recovered drugs from legitimate stings and resold them to Gomez-Castro for redistribution among drug dealers.

Six of these “ninja cops,” Aquino disclosed, have been rewarded with pricey sports utility vehicles (SUV) at the height of their operations when shabu or ice (methamphetamine hydrochloride) have become temporarily scarce following President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to stamp out the drug operations within the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

The NBP was and could still be the main base of large-scale transactions. Drug operations were prevalent at the national penitentiary for long, reaching its peak during the previous administration of former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, whose Justice chief and now Sen. Leila de Lima was named in a subsequent probe and sent to jail as allegedly a top drug protector of drug-dealing inmates.

Castro has been operating for a decade and had earned more than P1 billion through the illegal drug trade, according to Aquino.

Just to show how big the drug queen’s illegal drugs operation are, in two streets in Manila alone, he said that she disposes two to three kilos of illegal drugs a week.

PDEA has also identified 17 suppliers of illegal drugs that are connected to the drug queen and six identified policemen. He said other cops could also be involved.

Aquino added that the drug queen is also very influential and powerful and knows a lot of politicians.

“Gomez-Castro could still be sourcing her drugs from the NBP,” Aquino said. “The ‘recycled drugs’ are just a small fraction of what she sells.”

Yet still, the seized drugs being resold are also sometimes commandeered by what Aquino termed as the “little ninjas,” the low-ranked cops who prey on the street drug dealers, imitating the bigger “ninja cop” operations.

Aquino mentioned the so-called “volt-in group,” the independent collective of other rogue cops who derived their name from the 1970s Japanese robot series “Voltes V.” These are characters who form themselves into a temporary team to pounce on and transact with either big or small drug dealers.

But it is still the “ninja cops” who provide Gomez-Castro with protection and links, he said.

The highest-ranked among these “ninja cops” is a colonel and whose name could have been in the list revealed before several senators by witness Benjamin Magalong, the former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief and now Baguio City mayor.

Gomez-Castro’s tentacles, however, extend further than their reach in PNP offices. Aquino revealed her influence could have reached several politicians, including a number of congressmen and a senator.

She also once ran for but lost a seat in the City of Manila Council. She was under the Liberal Party (LP) ticket of former Manila Mayor and ex-Sen. Alfredo Lim.

Lim once served as NBI director and chief of the Western Police District (WPD), where the “ninja cops” originated.

Gomez-Castro won as chairwoman in her barangay in the last May elections, taking over the post once held by her husband Dennis Castro. But she did not take her oath and is thus yet officially eligible for office.

The PDEA’s coordination with the Bureau of Immigration revealed Gomez-Castro in presently in Thailand, having left last Saturday when the Senate investigation on the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law that led to the release of disqualified convicts of heinous crimes had branched out to several issues, including the “ninja cops” and the continuing proliferation of illegal drugs in the streets.

Gomez-Castro’s drug business, according to Aquino, remains unhampered despite her absence. A local politician — a councilor — had taken over the leadership of the trade.

“It has become a family business, that drug trade,” he said.

The merged drug operations of the Gomez and Castro families had welcomed a family member from the Pementera side to complete the triangle, he added.

“It is now the Gomez-Castro-Pementera drug group. They’re all relatives, including a policeman who had gone AWOL (absent without leave),” Aquino said.

And their operations lead back to that heavily-secured building in Prudencio Street, just a stone’s throw away from the barangay hall where the staff recognizes Gomez-Castro as their rightful leader, despite her absence.

Sen. Richard Gordon, however, hinted of an attempt to sway the focus of the public on the issue of “ninja cops” by revealing the name of the alleged drug queen.

“Now, consider this also… Why does the drug queen revealed suddenly? It seems that there is an attempt to focus the camera away from what is happening that even makes me more curious,” Gordon said.