P7.04-M worth of shabu seized in 3 PDEA-9 operations

COTABATO CITY — Anti-narcotics agents seized a total of P7.04 million worth of shab in separate operations targeting three suspected peddlers, one of whom was from Tawi-Tawi in the Bangsamoro region and had reportedly eluded four attempts to entrap him in the island province.

Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 9 first arrested the elusive male shabu suspect trafficker on Friday, October 23, during an entrapment operation in Barangay Tugbungan Zamboanga City. The suspect was from Bongao, the capital of Tawi-Tawi.

Bryan Babang, director of PDEA 9, said on Monday, October 6, that their agents, backed by policemen from different units of the Police Regional Office 9, immediately frisked and handcuffed the suspect after he sold shabu to them during a transaction in Barangay Tugbungan, a residential area in Zamboanga City.

Babang said the PDEA 9 agents seized from the suspect a kilo of shabu worth P6.8 million and a mobile phone containing contact numbers of his alleged accomplices in Zamboanga City and Tawi-Tawi, one of the five provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The operation that led to the suspect's arrest was based on tips from residents, local executives in Tawi-Tawi and police officials in the BARMM. They reportedly informed authorities that the suspect had relocated to Zamboanga City after eluding at least four entrapment attempts in the province over the past two years.

A PDEA-9 provincial team in Basilan, along with police officers, also arrested a male suspected drug dealer on Saturday during an entrapment operation in Barangay Mariki, Isabela City. The suspect allegedly sold P102,000 worth of shabu to the operatives.

Babang said officials of the Isabela City Police Station supported the operation.

Another team of PDEA-9 agents seized P102,000 worth of shabu from a male suspected drug peddler arrested during an entrapment operation on Sunday in Barangay Siloh, Siay, Zamboanga Sibugay.

Provincial officials in Maguindanao del Sur and Lanao del Sur told reporters that six alleged cohorts of the suspect arrested in Siay had been apprehended one after another in separate operations conducted by the PDEA-BARMM and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in the two provinces over the past 17 months.