Cops seize P20.4 million worth of shabu in Zamboanga City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen on Wednesday, October 7, seized P20.4 million worth of shabu from a dealer in Zamboanga City, who had eight accomplices entrapped in separate police operations in this city and in towns around in the past 10 months.

Officials of the Police Regional Office 9 and their counterparts in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao separately told reporters on Thursday that the shabu dealer arrested in an entrapment operation along Calle Real in Barangay Mercedes is now detained, awaiting prosecution for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Ranking police and Army intelligence officials based in Region 9,  in Cotabato City and in Maguindanao del Norte province, which are both in the territory of BARMM, separately told reporters that the now-detained Albert Albani Adjuraini, who hails from Talipao, Sulu, has links with drug dealers in Talitay, Maguindanao del Sur and in the Kapalawan town in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area in Region 12.

Sulu was once part of BARMM, but was taken out from the region more than two years ago by the Supreme Court based on a petition by Gov. Abdusakur Tan, Sr. and was, subsequently, fused with Region 9's territory on order of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Adjuraini was immediately cuffed by plainclothes policemen from the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit 9 and operatives from different PRO 9 units after turning over to them his illegal merchandise during a tradeoff along Calle Real in Barangay Mercedes.

The operation that resulted in his arrest and confiscation from him of three kilos of shabu, costing P20.4 million, was reportedly laid with the help of Zamboanga City officials, premised on tips about of his large-scale circulation of shabu in Zamboanga City and, through local accomplices, in far-flung towns in BARMM’s Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte provinces and in its capital Cotabato City.