P6.8 million shabu seized, 3 nabbed in Zamboanga hotel

MANILA, Philippines — Anti-drug agents and police seized a kilo of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu with a street value of P6.8 million and arrested three suspects in a sting at a pension hotel in Zamboanga City Thursday night.

Security officials said a fourth suspect managed to escape when operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 9, city police anti-drug and intelligence units staged the operation at the hotel in Barangay Canelar.

Edgar Jubay, PDEA-9 acting director, said the team also seized marked money and the cell phones of suspects Murhasan Tawasil Atari, 31; Edzmer Mangsan, 26; and Nur-hati Imlan Ajibon, 42. The fourth suspect was only identified as a certain Issa.

Jubay said the latest arrest came three days after his unit and Marines arrested three drug suspects and seized five kilos of shabu with a street value of P34 million in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, police operatives arrested four persons and confiscated nearly P1 million worth of illegal drugs in three separate operations in Quezon province on Wednesday and Thursday.

Quezon police director Col. Audie Madrideo identified the arrested suspects as alleged drug supplier Maria Cristina Camacho, 36; public utility van driver Adrian Bataanun, 39; terminal dispatcher Roel Ortiz, 24; and farmer Mhel Mark Gucilatar, 35.

In his report to Calabarzon police director Brig. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr., Madrideo said the operation yielded a total of 161 grams of shabu with a street value of P968,555.  – With Michelle Zoleta