P47.6-M worth shabu seized in Zamboanga City entrapment operation

MANILA, Philippines —The police seized P47.6 million worth of shabu from a dealer entrapped by non-uniformed anti-narcotics agents in Zamboanga City on Wednesday night.

Col. Alexander Lorenzo, Zamboanga City police director, told reporters on Thursday that they are now in custody of suspect Alkhominie Ismael Usil, who had sold seven kilos of shabu to policemen in a tradeoff at the Serenity Inn in Barangay Putik, laid with the help of tipsters, among them local officials.

Lorenzo said Usil hails from Barangay Lamion in Bongao, capital town of Tawi-Tawi province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Usil voluntarily turned himself in when he sensed that he had sold his illegal merchandise to policemen in one of the rooms in the Serenity Inn.

The entrapment operation that resulted in his arrest was carried out by the Zamboanga CPO with the help of different units under the Police Regional Office-9 and intelligence agents from the military’s Western Mindanao Command based in Calarian, Zamboanga City.

Zamboanga City Mayor John Dalipe, who immediately proceeded to Serenity Inn after learning of the seizure of P47.6 million worth of shabu from Usil, lauded the police and military units that cooperated to entrap the suspect, now detained.

Dalipe also expressed gratitude to the confidential informants who provided the Zamboanga CPO with vital information about the suspect’s large-scale distribution of shabu in the city.