P54.4 million worth of shabu seized in 2 separate operations

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 9 seized P54.4 million worth of shabu in two separate entrapment operations in Zamboanga City on Friday, April 24.

Bryan Babang, regional director of PDEA 9, confirmed to reporters on Saturday that their agents first seized three kilos of shabu, costing P20.4 million, from two male dealers during a tradeoff in Barangay Cabatangan in Zamboanga City at noon Friday.

The two suspects were immediately frisked and cuffed by PDEA 9 agents and operatives from different units of the Police Regional Office 9 after turning over to them shabu during an entrapment operation along a stretch of the Bypass Road in Cabatangan, laid with the help of barangay and city officials.

Besides the P20.4 million worth of shabu, PDEA 9 agents also seized the duo’s black Toyota Fortuner, bearing license plates NDX 4197, and their mobile phones bearing the numbers of their contacts in different cities and provinces in Region 9 and in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Six hours later, a team of PDEA 9 agents and policemen clamped down another male trafficker in an entrapment operation in Zone IV-B along the Diversion Road in Barangay Culianan in Zamboanga City.

Babang said the suspect first tried to run away, when he sensed he had turned over shabu to anti-narcotics agents, but was eventually cornered and detained after a brief chase. 

PDEA 9 agents and personnel of different units of the Zamboanga City Police Office and PRO-9 had confiscated from him P34 million worth of shabu, weighing five kilos, to be used as evidence in prosecuting him for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Babang said all three shabu traffickers arrested during the two entrapment operations are now in their custody.

Babang and the chief of PDEA 9’s team in Zamboanga City, Gladys Grace Cruz, separately told reporters that they are grateful to barangay officials and to the office of Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso for supporting both entrapment operations.